|
|
|
|
Safety Activities at the EEC |
|
|
|
Assuring the safety of European air navigation services is the primary aim of the EUROCONTROL Agency. Since so much in air traffic management (ATM) is currently evolving, there is a need for safety-in-design to provide objective evidence to stakeholders about the potential value and expected impact of the concepts under development. Safety at the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre (EEC) aims at ensuring that we stay on top of safety issues and that we maintain, or, preferably, improve safety levels for future ATM systems.
|
|
|
|
In line with the safety policy of the EEC,
|
| |
 |
The EEC's Safety Policy. |
|
|
safety at the EEC is two-fold, namely:
|
|
|
The former relates to the safety validation of projects following the EEC Safety Management System (SMS) and the necessary development of safety & human factor techniques and methods. This is the subject of this page. The latter relates to safety improvement research and is looking for gains in safety, and asking "where can we improve our safety?"
|
|
|
At the EEC, we carry out a substantial, diverse and far-ranging collection of safety of R&D activities that are intended to serve the interests and needs of the Agency, European stakeholders, and the wider aviation community beyond Europe. They are directed towards the EEC Strategic objectives that are:
- contributing to the consolidation of the "Co-operative Network Design (CND)" business pillar,
- facilitating the implementation of the programmes necessary to achieve the SESAR 2012/2013 baseline, and
- supporting the SESAR Joint Undertaking so that 2020 network performance objectives can be achieved.
|
|
|
Indeed, the EEC, together with its stakeholders, is faced with the challenge of developing, and then validating, the vision for the ATM system of the future that will be able to cope with the increasing demands for civilian air travel. As changes are implemented, it is imperative that the safety of the system is not compromised; in fact, the safety of the system should be improved so as to balance the additional risks from increased traffic levels. In fact, because so much change in the landscape is envisaged, a significant, integrated, and explicit safety effort is required.
Consequently, working under the EUROCONTROL agency-wide safety policy, the EEC is committed to operating a safety management system (SMS), that ensures that safety is addressed in an explicit, formal, and documented manner.
|
| |
|
The EUROCONTROL Agency Safety Policy |
|
|
|
The "Safety Management" function at the EEC is to ensure the co-ordinated and coherent application of a priori safety assessment of changes to the ATM system in relevant EEC work programme work packages. The SMS at the EEC has five essentials facets, these being:
- To ensure the alignment of the safety assessments to the complete, coherent, and integrated approach to safety assessment.
- To ensure a "big picture" for safety by reviewing and comparing the outputs of safety activities in a consistent manner.
- To develop, or enhance, safety assessment techniques while ensuring the stability of the safety assurance process. Improved techniques are fed into the safety process where they are needed, and when they are sufficiently mature for application, the intent being to integrate them into the EUROCONTROL safety assessment methodology (SAM) - see the SAM newsletter below.
- To provide training and coaching.
- To ensure that safety assessments are comprehensively documented and placed under configuration management (based on a system for identifying, querying, and controlling documentation)
|
|
|
For more information, have a look at the SAM newsletter or the SMS web pages.
| |
 |
The SAM newsletter |
| |
|
The EEC's SMS |
|
|
The Safety Culture Toolbox |
| |
|
The Safety Culture toolbox |
|
|
The Safety Culture toolbox is currently under revision. Any comments and contributions are welcome and can be sent to
|
|
|
| |
|
Safety documents and publications |
|
|
If you would like more information about the Safety of R&D (in the "Research Methods" team), contact:
|
Eric
Perrin
|
|
EEC SMS Manager and Mid-term Validation Safety Manager
|
| Email:
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
Author:
Last validation: 26/03/2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | |
