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The Safety Issue Hub supports the delivery of IATA Safety Strategy. The Hub is an internationally recognized repository of aviation hazards and safety risks to enable the prioritization and delivery of aviation safety improvement programs, for the benefit of reducing global accidents in aviation.
What's New
18 July 2024
Enhancing Safety Performance Monitoring: The Key to Preventing Aviation Incidents.
On March 4th, 2024, a Boeing 737-800 experienced a takeoff with insufficient thrust to meet the required performance as per takeoff performance calculations. As a result, the aircraft became airborne 260 meters from the end of the runway, crossing it at a height of approximately 10 feet above ground level.
To what degree does your operation face exposure to this type of event? Are you fully informed about your operation's takeoff performance? What is your risk of suffering a potential tail strike, high-energy Runway Excursion, or a Controlled Flight Into Terrain accident because of Take-off performance issues? You may believe this is not an issue because of an absence of reporting such events in your operation.
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has issued a special bulletin S1/2024 regarding the incident mentioned above. The bulletin highlights the importance of recognizing that takeoff performance issues may not become noticeable to the flight crew until late in the takeoff roll or they may not realize at all. This could be one of the reasons why such events are not reported to operators' SMS. The bulletin stresses the need for a proactive approach to identifying precursors to ensure air operators can effectively address such issues.
From this event and similar safety incidents, the AAIB has recommended implementing means into air operators' flight data monitoring programs (FDM) (Flight Operations Quality Assurance, FOQA) to detect precursors relevant to takeoff performance monitoring (Safety Recommendation 2022-019). This is a crucial step in preventing similar incidents in the future.
Recently, IATA made available in the Safety Issue Hub a lite Safety risk assessment related to Erroneous Take-Off Performance Calculations, in which some actions are called out for detecting and tracking unnoticed takeoff performance issues and precursors related to calculation errors. It might require developing data recording capability as needed. If readily available, FDM programs should be used to follow up on indications of inadequate take-off performance by looking at the following,
- Thrust setting/Abnormal slow acceleration
- Change of thrust setting during take-off roll
- Take-off distance used/remaining runway
- Rotation rate/slow rotation/low rotation
- Speed VR/abnormal or early rotations
- Height above threshold
- CG out of limits
Additionally, the Flight Safety Foundation released a good use case study related to takeoff rotation, which might provide good insight into how to use FDM data, considering all operations, to detect and track takeoff performance issues precursors.
What measures has your organization taken to ensure effective takeoff performance monitoring and to detect and address potential issues?
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States Significant Safety Concerns
Are you operating into/overflying a state with a significant safety concern (SSC) raised by ICAO?
Call to Action: in support of your risk assessment, contact your state/national authority to obtain more information from ICAO on the nature of the SSC (for detailed and specific data located in the ICAO secured member area).
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Check out the latest additions
New Safety Issues:
- Injuries from slide descent training
- Hot cabins - Ground operations in hot environment
- Use of non-certified inflatable child comfort devices
- Summer Season / Demand increased issues / Weather
Safety Issues with updated Guidance Material in March:
- GPS Spoofing and Jamming Tracker Map - Live tracking
- Future Aircraft Communications - IATA Whitepaper
- Psychosocial risk management and mental health - RAS Briefing Paper
Safety issues are complemented with associated generic risk assessments and guidance material. On top of that, you have the opportunity to join our Safety Connect Initiative, which offers a unique safety management community for sharing best practices and safety knowledge
The introduction of a risk-based approach for the IOSA program complements the Safety Issues Hub with associated risk pictures will enhance the risk-based IOSA program by making it more targeted. The audits themselves will also gather de-identified operator risks to feed back into the hub.
Ensuring the continued confidentiality of contributors, the Hub will be matured by the incorporation of anonymized and aggregated insights from IATA’s safety, security and operational data sharing program - Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) and through the Safety Issue Review Meetings.
The benefits of the Safety Issue Hub to members and the wider aviation community include:
- Providing a central repository for information, guidance material, and generic risk assessments that support airlines' own risk assessments to inform their safety management system.
- Risk-based, targeted safety improvement programs delivered by IATA to support the mitigation of safety risks
- IATA’s Operational Safety Audits enhanced with regional and sector risk pictures
Do not hesitate to contact us at SafetyRisk@iata.org for more information.