International
Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) urge Ministers attending the African Ministerial
Meeting on Aviation Safety being held in Abuja, Nigeria to endorse
and adopt the Africa Strategic Improvement Action
Plan. The plan will enhance safety by addressing deficiencies and
strengthening regulatory oversight in the region progressively to
2015.
The
Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan calls for the:
·Establishment
of independent and sufficiently funded civil aviation authorities.
·Implementation
of effective and transparent safety oversight systems by all African
States.
·Completion
of an IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) by all African carriers.
·Implementation
of accident prevention measures focused on runway safety and loss of
control.
·Implementation
of Flight Data Analysis (FDA).
·Implementation
of Safety Management Systems (SMS) by all service providers.
IATA,
ICAO and leading aviation stakeholders and regulatory organizations
committed to this plan following the Africa Safety Summit held in
Johannesburg in May 2012. The key areas were developed based on an
analysis of air transport accidents in Africa between 2006-2010
conducted by IATA and ICAO. This analysis identified that the main
contributing factors to accidents were insufficient regulatory
oversight and the lack of SMS implementation. Implementation of tools
such as FDA could have pinpointed precursors to the major accident
types, namely runway excursions, controlled flight into terrain and
loss of control. Runway excursions alone accounted for about a
quarter of African accidents. This plan must also include the urgent
resolution of all identified Significant Safety Concerns (SSCs) and
the certification of all international airports.
“For
ICAO, States with significant safety concerns are a priority, and I
cannot stress enough that they should be the priority of all
stakeholders,” emphasized ICAO Council President Roberto Kobeh
González.
Several
ongoing IATA and ICAO initiatives and programs contribute towards the
Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan:
1.ICAO
has placed specific emphasis on urgently addressing all identified
SSCs by 2013 and adopting and implementing an effective safety
oversight system. ICAO is working with African States whose audit
results under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme require
improvement. ICAO and those States developed Tailored Plans of Action
that will outline the series of steps necessary to improve regulatory
capabilities, and therefore safety. Simultaneously, ICAO and IATA
hosted a one-day workshop on the steps necessary to address SSCs.
2.IATA,
ICAO and other international organizations have developed a Runway
Safety Program with a series of workshops being held worldwide. The
next African event is 29-30 October 2012, in Cape Town. An event is
planned for Western Africa in March 2013. The Runway Safety Toolkit
is available on both the IATA and ICAO websites, free of charge.
3.The
IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), which is a requirement for
membership in IATA, includes standards that provide a baseline SMS
assessment. “Global standards such as IOSA are a proven way to
improve aviation safety. In 2011, Africa-based operators on the IOSA
registry had an accident rate of 1.84 per million flights, which is
close to the world IOSA average of 1.73. By comparison non-IOSA
operators in Africa had an accident rate of 9.31,” said Guenther
Matschnigg, IATA Senior Vice President, Safety, Operations and
Infrastructure. “The 2012 Western-built Jet accident rate for
Africa as of 30 June was 6.28 which is 92 % higher than last year at
the same time. This increase in the accident rate reflects the two
tragic accidents in Nigeria last month that remind us that safety is
a constant challenge -- even in states with a solid safety
leadership. However, no IOSA registered carriers based in
Africa have been involved in accidents in 2012 at the time of this
report, confirming the efficiency of complying with the audit’s 900
+ standards. Therefore we urge the African Transport Ministers to
mandate IOSA for all carriers in the region, “said Matschnigg.
4.The
use of FDA is another key tool to improve safety. The IATA
Implementation Program for Safe Operations in Africa (IPSOA) ensured
that flight data analysis tools are available to all IATA carriers in
Africa. “Participating carriers have seen a 56% reduction in
deviations from optimum flight trajectories and the top five airports
with unstable approaches have also been identified,” said
Matschnigg.
5.ICAO
has just released an updated Safety Management Manual which provides
significant new guidance on the State Safety Program, the segment
targeted for regulators. This document, and resulting training, will
assist all ICAO States in implementing safety management.
The
funding of the proposed action plan will be shared according to the
functions and responsibilities of the entities involved in each
initiative.