Safety

A proactive and preventive approach to make the network safer, more secure and robust.

About

At EUROCONTROL, we work to ensure that safety remains the top priority in all domains of air traffic management and air service provision.

As the Network Manager, and in partnership with civil and military airspace users as well as international organisations, we strive to maximise safety performance on a pan-European level and beyond .

We also believe that safety management should evolve. Today, our approach to safety is proactive more than reactive; preventive rather than responsive. We systemically look for emerging properties in a constantly changing system.

We work with
200

airlines

90+

air navigation service providers

3,000+

pilots world-wide

Focus

On an operational level, we support the aviation industry in enhancing their safety management systems. Our staff continually monitor safety issues in the network and assess the associated risk. This approach is key to developing and deploying the new methods, tools and workflows that we make available to operational stakeholders. In this way, we also facilitate the rapid and proactive identification of safety issues and the dissemination of knowledge in the aviation community.

Our approach to safety management is multifaceted, as we seek to serve and support our Member States and stakeholders’ diverse range of needs and priorities while meeting passengers’ expectations of safety. All this entails:

  • promoting a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of all the dimensions of safety;
  • learning from consequence-less incidents and accidents;
  • promoting a blame-free culture;
  • sharing data and best practices for the benefit of airspace users and the entire aviation community.

We encourage a system-focused approach to help make sense of – and improve – system performance.

Our Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) works to deliver safe and efficient cross-border air navigation services. Our comprehensive safety management system and a robust safety culture contribute to an excellent safety record. Staff with safety-related tasks are appropriately trained and their competences systematically assessed and maintained. “Safety culture” and “just culture” principles are an integral part of the Centre’s work, and staff proactively promote them. We follow up without delay on incidents and occurrences with a safety impact and further reduce risks by incorporating safety and human factors in the development of new ATM systems and services.

Our safety activities build on several principles including “just culture”, “safety culture”, “human performance” and "human factors”, which we have introduced and/or actively promote through an extensive range of information initiatives. These concepts underpin a systemic view of safety, and innovate the way organisations approach and deal with it. Given a system with definite goals, actors have a wider perspective that now takes account of the interactions among the various components - human, social, technical, information, political, economic and organisational - of the system. By extending the operational to a cultural level, we contribute to actively encouraging safety-culture changes in ATM organisations in Europe and worldwide.

Our audience includes:

  • +28,000 subscribers (to SKYbrary and HindSight);
  • +1,600 participants (at IANS training courses);
  • +250 attendees at our annual Safety Forum.

On behalf of the military aviation community, we keep abreast of new safety regulations and the latest improvements in this field.

Our experts monitor all safety aspects with a view to highlighting potential implications for the sector. They promote information-sharing and coordination among military stakeholders and apply EUROCONTROL’s military expertise to safety-related working arrangements.

Our safety research activities support ATM and aviation by harnessing the best of safety research, making sure it benefits operational organisations.

Through our strong collaboration with the European Commission and EASA, as well as our involvement in the OPTICS2 project, which evaluates leading edge safety research globally, we help a growing number of air navigation service providers, airlines and airports to improve safety culture, safety intelligence and operational safety.

We do this in flagship EU-funded safety research projects such as OPTICS, Future Sky Safety and SAFEMODE.

Through our joint work programme with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), we make our expertise available to help implement a single European safety regulatory framework.

By doing so, we contribute to the safer evolution of the European sky.

We deliver
4,000+

reports/year

200+

analyses and customised studies/year

900+

feedback/year on submitted reports

Services and projects

ACAS|TCAS

Airborne collision avoidance system

CSS

Call sign similarity service

Collision avoidance validation platform

EVAIR

EUROCONTROL voluntary ATM incident reporting

STCA, MSAW, APW, APM

Ground-based safety nets

Human performance

SKYbrary

Your single point of reference to share best practice and knowledge in aviation safety.

SKYbrary is an electronic repository of safety knowledge related to flight operations, air traffic management and aviation safety in general. It is also a portal, a common entry point, that enables users to access the safety data made available by aviation organisations, regulators, service providers, and the industry.

Just culture

Because we are all human

ATM safety is at the heart of what we do. Improving safety implies learning from accidents or incidents so as to take appropriate action to prevent repeating them.

Tools

CSST

Call sign similarity tool

CARMA

Civil aviation resource management application

RAT

Risk analysis tool

e-SAM

Safety assessment methodology

SKYbrary

SKYbrary toolkits

Training

Join our safety courses!

Be part of the over 1,600 successfully trained experts in
safety-related matters.

Latest deliverables

HindSight #35 - Summer 2023 - cover
Issue 35

HindSight - Winter 2022

HindSight - Winter 2021

HindSight - Spring 2021

HindSight - Winter 2020

Latest highlights

Julie Garland
Article

The future of Europe's aviation sector: embracing innovation

Steven Moore & Yolanda Portillo
Article

Preparing for Summer 2024: more traffic, disruptive weather but deeper and more effective collaboration

Daniela Richter & Karlotta Victor
Article

Revolutionising mobility in cities through UAVs - the airspace design challenge

Christophe Vivier
Article

New military technologies will require ATM modernisation to manage airspace more dynamically, safely and efficiently

LADR
Article

Major developments towards implementation of the global aircraft-in-distress service

Diversity of Thought
Article

Diversity of thought: surviving and thriving in a changing world