ECAST
PLENARY MEETING – 1/08 – EASA
·
I represented the UKFSC at the
first European Commercial Air Safety Team meeting of 2008 at EASA in
· From a series of air safety concerns, the inaugural ECAST meeting in November identified SMS implementation and documentation advice and ground safety as the priority actions for the Team – with SMS first.
· EASA Safety Analysis rep presented their review of Accident stats for 2007 which had been collated from ICAO sources. This covered all fatal and almost all non-fatal accidents with aircraft above 2250 kgs. The top 3 causes were identified as runway contacts, ac system failures and runway excursions. Ramp handling incidents were 4th where inexperienced groundcrew injured by jet blast was noticeably high. Most ramp accidents occurred in VMC conditions.
o Review concluded that there is no one factor to concentrate on, that all aviation stakeholders were involved, industry-wide forums are required and that ECAST should be regarded as ‘the European Forum’.
Some useful
links in the Minutes to Canadian Transport SMS business reports and
presentations!
·
Head of EASA Rulemaking then provided an update on SMS requirements. They had carried
out a comparison of IATA, J Ops and EASA regulations to find common ground and agreement
on SMS rule formulation. He reported on an EASA workshop in Jan 2008 and on
future work to develop the rules for SMS which can be found on the EAS
website. He anticipated publication of
the NPA for SMS in June 2008 followed by a public consultation. He expressed
concerns about the impact of SMS regulations on smaller organisations and
anticipated AMCs will be devised. He anticipated a 6 month delay with the
formal issue of EASA SMS guidance (Spring 2009). UK CAA Rep recorded his concern with
the delay since
· Draft TORs for an SMS Working Group to work under the direction of the ECAST Plenary Decision making body were presented and discussed. From 15 volunteers, a Group of 4/5 would be selected from ECAST to produce more detailed guidance from the developing Rulemaking NPA and AMCs. They would meet monthly to undertake the work and report regularly to the ECAST. Click for Draft Terms of Reference for the SMS Working Group.
· The Ground Safety Working Group would form later in the year to start developing guidance to address this priority issue.
·
IACA reported on some
serious ground incidents at Spanish airports. They
reported the damage by ground handlers to their members’ ac as 27 per 1000
flights. Each repair cost an average of 50k Euros – and 19% of those ac damaged
flew back to base without knowledge of the damage.
·
Next ECAST meeting is
Rich Jones
Chief Exec
UKFSC
.