Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on occurrence reporting in civil aviation"
Date: 2001-09-12
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: air safety, civil aviation, transport safety

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2.3.
Given that this is the 23rd time the basic Directive has
been amended, the Committee would repeat its suggestion

that it should be revised, and on no account must this revision
be held up by the work relating to the chemicals white paper.

Brussels, 12 September 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European
Parliament and of the Council on occurrence reporting in civil aviation’

(2001/C 311/03)

On 24 January 2001, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 80(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 17 July 2001. The rapporteur
was Mr Green.

At its 384th plenary session on 12 and 13 September 2001 (meeting of 12 September) the Economic
and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 89 votes in favour, with two abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
It is widely recognised that air transport is among the
safest modes of transport. Over the last ten years the annual
average number of deaths in commercial air transport was
1 243 per year in 49 accidents worldwide. Europe can report
an even more favourable situation as it only accounts for 10 %
of the accidents while it produces about a third of the air
traffic. In the Community, commercial air traffic provided by
average of
resulted in a
Community carriers
52 deaths (1).

yearly

1.2.
All the safety experts recognise however that the global
rate of accidents is merely stabilising; as a consequence, if
nothing is done to improve it, the growth in air traffic will
lead to an increase in the absolute number of fatal accidents
per year. It is therefore necessary to explore new ways of
improving air safety.

1.3.
Community accident prevention policy in the air
transport sector resulted, in November 1994, in the adoption
of a directive on the investigation of civil aviation accidents

(1) Source: Airclaims.

and incidents (2). That Directive aims at ensuring that any
accident or serious incident is properly investigated with the
objective of preventing its recurrence. However the limitations
of this approach are mainly that, as the number of accidents is
fortunately very low, the opportunities to learn from them are
limited and that lessons are drawn only after a tragedy has
already happened.

1.4.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)
confirms the need to collect data on incidents in standardised
forms so as to facilitate exchange of statistics and hence
analysis. Chapter 7 of Annex 13 to the Convention on
International Civil Aviation recommends that ‘States should
establish formal incident reporting systems to facilitate collec-
tion of information on actual or potential safety deficiencies’.

(2) Council Directive 94/56/EC of 21 November 1994 establishing
the fundamental principles governing the investigation of civil
aviation accidents and incidents. OJ L 319, 12.12.1994.

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1.5.
A study carried out by the International Federation
of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA) on behalf of the
Commission showed that only few Member States collect
mandatory occurrence reports and even fewer stored, retrieved
or analysed the related data. One reason could be that the
number of significant occurrences at individual Member State
level is not large enough to give an early indication of a
potential serious hazard or to identify trends.

2.6.
The proposal requires Member States to send manda-
tory data to the ECCAIRS database. Such information is
confidential and only bodies with the task of framing civil
aviation safety rules or investigating aviation accidents will
have direct access to the information. The names and addresses
of individual persons must never be recorded on the database.
The Commission may also make data available to other
interested parties. Dissemination is to be limited to what is
strictly necessary.

2. The Commission proposal

In order to inform the public about general aviation
2.7.
safety in the Community, the Member States are to publish
overall statistics on a regular basis.

The Commission therefore proposes that the Com-
2.1.
munity creates the necessary legal framework to collect and
disseminate information on aviation incidents on the widest
possible scale so that all parties involved in aviation can learn
from mishaps and improve their performances to produce a
safer system.

2.2.
The proposal encompasses both mandatory and confi-
dential reporting of incidents, defects or malfunctions which
may constitute a hazard for civil aviation operations, described
by the generic term of
‘occurrences’. Adequate data will
result in more accurate analysis, which will in turn improve
knowledge of occurrences and therefore help to prevent future
accidents.

The Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has
2.3.
developed ‘ECCAIRS’ (European Coordination Centre for Avi-
ation Incident Reporting Systems), a data base which can
operate as a centralised system for the collection and exchange
of data without requiring Member States to change their
current systems. Further, the ECCAIRS system is fully compat-
ible with the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation)
system.

2.4.
The proposal covers mandatory and confidential
reporting of accidents, incidents and serious incidents as well
as all other defects or malfunctioning of an aircraft,
its
equipment, ground equipment and any element of the air
navigation system which is used or intended to be used for the
purpose of or in connection with the operation of an aircraft
or with the provision of an air traffic management service or
navigational aid to an aircraft.

2.5.
The relevant national authority is required to report on
any occurrence which, if not corrected, would endanger an
its occupants or any other person. Examples of
aircraft,
reportable occurrences are given in Annexes I and II to the
proposed directive. The Annexes are the result of the work
done by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air
Navigation, Eurocontrol and the Joint Aviation Authorities
Organisation (JAA), in a drive to harmonise technical reporting
in Europe. The Commission took part in these working parties.

2.8.
In addition, the proposal provides that the Member
States shall adapt their national laws to ensure that the relevant
authority can ‘disidentify’ voluntary reports, i.e. reports which
are not mandatory. Such information is to be stored under
corresponding conditions in the ECCAIRs base.

Better knowledge of these accident ‘precursors’ can be

2.9.
expected to help prevent their occurrence.

2.10.
The Commission takes the view that the Community
must provide the necessary framework to enable the setting
up of a confidential incidents reporting programme which
will encourage submission of voluntary reports of observed
deficiencies in the aviation system perceived as an actual or
potential hazard, and feed the aviation system with a view to
contributing to the improvement of its safety level.

2.11.
As already mentioned in the IFALPA study, the single
main element to obtain the trust and confidence of reporters
in the confidentiality of the reporting system is to disidentify
as early as possible the data they give so that nobody in the
chains of dissemination and analysis can identify them at any
time.

2.12.
The Commission has given financial support to the
establishment of a confidential reporting system in Germany.
This system, called EUCARE (1), ran as a research prototype
from 1993 to 1999. Its operation was monitored by a Steering
Committee composed of safety experts of Member States and
chaired by the Commission. The Steering Committee has
produced a report describing in detail how a confidential
reporting system should be organised in order to gain the
confidence of all parties.

(1) EUCARE — European Confidential Aviation Safety Reporting

Network.

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To evaluate the legal

2.13.
feasibility of confidential
reporting in countries where legal provisions derive from the
‘Napoleonic Code’, the Commission commissioned another
study (1). That study concluded that ‘... no truly relevant legal
obstacle stands in the way of the establishment of voluntary
air incident reports. ... The Community could ... establish the
general
framework for a standard voluntary aircraft
incident reporting system ... From a strictly legal point of view
it does not appear impossible to consider a system with
operational principles that need not necessarily comply with
the legal practices of each Member State and which therefore
require special derogations from the criminal law’.

legal

2.14.
In the light of the above, the Commission concludes
that the organisation of confidential incident reporting at EU
level is feasible and that enough knowledge and experience
has been gained by Member States and the Commission to
facilitate a mostly human factor oriented network of confiden-
tial reporting systems.

2.15.
Further, trust and confidence seem to be easier to
gain if the bodies managing the reports are not themselves
official or administrative organisations and if interested parties
can participate in monitoring them so that confidentiality is
guaranteed. The Commission therefore considers that the best
option is for the Community to act as a facilitator, so that
interested parties can establish the necessary structures, or
existing bodies can expand their activities in the Community.

2.16.
The Commission therefore proposes that the Member
States adjust their laws, regulations and administrative prac-
tices so as to allow the disidentification of reports of occur-
rences which are not subject
If
necessary the Commission could also examine how the
Community budget allocated to improving air safety could be
used to support existing or new foundations when they meet
the necessary conditions, as identified by the EUCARE study,
to win the trust and confidence of all interested parties.

to mandatory reporting.

3.2.
Further, the ESC agrees that the number of possible
notifications of occurrences may be limited, in both quantitat-
ive and qualitative terms, at individual Member State level. To
achieve the requisite ‘critical mass’ a Community framework
should therefore be established to facilitate the reporting of as
many occurrences as possible, with a view to exchanging and
disseminating information so that it can be analysed in order
to draw accurate conclusions.

3.3.
Accordingly the ESC is able to support the proposal,
which involves the setting up of mandatory and confidential
information on the
reporting systems and exchanges of
basis of commonly approved rules on confidentiality and
dissemination, subject to the additions to the detailed common
provisions on handling of confidentiality and on publication
which are set out below.

3.4.
The proposed mandatory reporting of information
relating to aviation occurrences to the relevant national
authority can seem to lack clarity. A provision could be
envisaged whereby reporting shall always be made to the
national authority in the country where the aircraft is regis-
tered, though it is not always appropriate. Irregularities in
connection with air traffic or navigation services should be
reported to the authority of the country responsible for these
services.

Care should be taken to ensure that the proposal uses

3.5.
the same terminology as ICAO.

3.6.
There would seem to be a grey area as regards reporting
to be made under the proposed directive and reporting to be
made under Directive 94/56/EC establishing the fundamental
principles governing the investigation of civil aviation acci-
dents and incidents.

3.7.
The ESC recommends that the reporting of administrat-
ive causes should come within the scope of the European
Aviation Safety Agency recently proposed by the Commission
(COM(2000) 595) (2).

3. General comments

4. Special comments

4.1. Article 4

3.1.
Despite the fact that air transport is among the safest
forms of transport, the ESC feels that it is vital to continue to
focus attention on further reducing the risk of aviation
accidents, especially in view of the steady increase in air traffic.

The ESC feels that a provision should be inserted specifying
that
the authorities in a Member State may decide that
mandatory reporting by pilots and other aviation company
employees shall be made through a coordinator designated by
the companies concerned.

(1) ‘Legal problems posed by implementation of a Community
voluntary incident reporting system in the field of air safety’, by
Prof. Lucien Rapp.

(2) Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the
Council on establishing common rules in the field of civil aviation
and creating a European Aviation Safety Agency (COM(2000)
595 final — 2000/0246 (COD); OJ C 221, 7.8.2001, p. 31.

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4.2. Article 7(3)

4.4. Article 8(4)

This provision should be amplified to require that the report
shall contain statistical information on the number of oper-
ational disturbances and other irregular conditions classified
in different categories along with the results, possibly including
recommendations, of the authorities’ assessments in the light
of above, in the interests of aviation safety.

4.3. Article 8(2)

In the ESC’s view, the competent authorities referred to in
to further
Article 5(1) should be required,
disidentify reporting of occurrences in cases where the person’s
identity can be fairly accurately established even if their name
and address are not registered.

if necessary,

In accordance with general legal principles the ESC considers
that Article 8(4) should be amplified to specify that the
mandatory reporting provided for in Article 4(1) should not
be required of persons against whom legal proceedings could
be brought on account of their report.

5. Conclusion

5.1.
The ESC fully supports the coordinated collection,
storage and exchange of information on irregular conditions
of relevance to air safety since such a system can be expected
to be helpful in preventing serious accidents.

Subject to the above comments the Economic and
5.2.
Social Committee endorses the Commission’s proposal for a
directive of the European Parliament and the Council on
occurrence reporting in civil aviation.

Brussels, 12 September 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS