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Civil aviation: reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences

2012/0361(COD)

The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the report by Christine DE VEYRAC (EPP, FR) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on occurrence reporting in civil aviation amending Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 and repealing Directive No 2003/42/EC, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1321/2007 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1330/2007.

The committee recommended that the Parliament’s position adopted at first reading, following the ordinary legislative procedure, should amend the Commission proposal as follows:

The main amendments were as follows:

Subject matter: the Committee proposed that the Regulation should seek to:

  • improve aviation safety by ensuring that relevant civil aviation safety information is reported, collected, stored, protected, exchanged, disseminated, analysed and that safety actions are taken as quickly as possible;
  • provide for rules concerning the integration of information collected into a European Central Repository (ECR) and concerning their dissemination to interested parties;
  • ensure the continued availability of safety information by means of rules on the confidentiality;
  • ensures that aviation safety risks are considered and dealt with also at European level.

Scope: with a view to enhancing staff members’ trust in a ‘just culture’, so as to encourage reporting of events with the sole aim of improving aviation safety, the committee suggested that protection for persons reporting an occurrence should be extended to cover anyone involved in the incident rather than merely the individual reporting it.

Mandatory, occurrence and voluntary reporting systems:

- The voluntary reporting system should be set up by EASA to facilitate collection of details on occurrences that may not be captured by the mandatory reporting system but which are perceived by the

person reporting them as an actual or potential hazard to aviation safety, including collection of details on occurrences gathered by organisations certified or approved by EASA.

- A mandatory reporting system should be set up by EASA to facilitate collection of details of occurrences, including collection of details of occurrences gathered by organisations certified or approved by European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

- The occurrence reporting system should clearly specify the Member State to which the person reporting the occurrence has to address his report.

The mandatory occurrence reporting requirements should be extended to all types of aircraft and aircraft operations.

Reporting requirements for light aircraft: the amended text stipulated that a detailed list of the incidents to be reported under the mandatory reporting system appears in Annex I. That list sets out specific reporting obligations concerning the notification of incidents to be reported involving a non-complex aircraft. Any other incident considered to be relevant by the parties involved shall be notified under the voluntary reporting system.

Reporting delays: every person who reports occurrences should do so within not more than 72 hours after becoming aware of the occurrence, unless prevented from doing so by exceptional circumstances.

Each organisation certified or approved by EASA shall report to EASA the details on occurrences collected within 72 hours of the actual or potential danger to aviation safety being identified.

Confidentiality: the Committee deemed it essential to respect the rules of independence and confidentiality with a view to ensuring the effective protection of the information supplied by the person reporting the occurrence.

EASA: the Authority should:

  • designate one or more persons to put in place a mechanism to collect, evaluate, process, analyse and store details on occurrences reported;
  • comply with the same obligations as the competent authorities of the Member States, particularly by putting in place mandatory and voluntary reporting systems, by ensuring the protection and anonymity of the data in its Internal Occurrence Reporting System database (IORS) and taking, where appropriate, the necessary preventive or corrective action, and then by passing on this information in the ECR.
  • be given adequate resources to enable it to carry out the tasks entrusted to it;
  • store in a database occurrence reports arising from the collection of details of occurrences;
  • put in place procedures seeking to monitor the quality of the data it collects.

European risk classification system: the Commission should develop within two years a common European risk classification scheme enabling the Member States and EASA to classify occurrences in terms of safety risk. In doing so the Commission shall take into account the need for compatibility with existing risk classification schemes. Collaboration shall be carried out by a Network of Aviation Safety Analysts from all the Member States.

Review: the Commission should monitor and review the application of this Regulation. Within five years from the entry into force of this Regulation, it should publish an evaluation report covering, in particular, the contribution made by this Regulation to reducing the number of aircraft accidents and related fatalities. Where appropriate and on the basis of that report, the Commission shall make proposals for amendment of this Regulation.