CAP1864 – Onshore Helicopter Review

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will work with the onshore industry to develop and implement similar objectives to the OHSLG through an Onshore Safety Leadership Group for CAT and emergency service operations.

Action Response

The Onshore Safety Leadership Group (OnSLG) has been established to help deliver appropriate actions and recommendation published in CAP1864 - The Onshore Helicopter Review (2019.) Its purpose is to set a strategic safety agenda for the onshore helicopter industry and to work collectively with stakeholders, operators and regulatory bodies to help shape the future of helicopter safety management in the UK.

Status

Closed.

The onshore review has shown important safety related data is not being captured as part of the ECCAIRS occurrence reporting system. It is recommended that EASA propose, to the ECCAIRS working group, amendments to the existing taxonomy for Human Factors and the ability to identify the HF additional contributory factors in events.

Recommendation Response

Mandatory Occurrence Report (MORs) has been a part of the fabric of UK aviation operations since 1976. Reporting is mandated by UK Regulation 376/2014 which requires the reporting of safety related occurrences involving UK airspace users.

ECCAIRS (European Co-ordination Center for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems) provides a digital platform to integrate European National Aviation Authorities (NAA’s) and Safety Investigation Authorities (SIA’s) to enable the implementation of the provisions defined in regulation 376/2014.

Since publication of CAP1864, there has been significant developments and improvements within the ECCAIRS system when it transitioned for ECCAIRS Ver1 to ECCAIRS2, including:

• State of the art IT technology secured central architecture, private cloud environment, managed by EASA.
• Integrated cybersecurity protocols, with Multi-Factor-Authentication and fully encrypted data.
• Compatibility with all internet browsers and operating systems.
• User-friendly interfaces.
• All updates, fixes, enhancements for both the Software and the Taxonomy values immediately available for users.
• Central support via built-in “helpdesk” to report issues, ask questions, propose improvements.
• Integration into Data4Safety program of the EC/EASA, subject to strict data protection as per EU 376/2014: advanced analytics, insights and auto-improved data quality to support aviation safety. 

Furthermore, a new version of the European Aviation Safety Reporting Portal was published on 5th Jan 2021. The portal is available at aviationreporting.eu 

With regards the recommendation that there be amendments to the existing taxonomy for HF, this was included in the upgrade to ECCAIRS2, with the taxonomy now containing a broad range of human factors and human performance related event types. The personnel section contains 103 level 4 event types that cover the majority of HF related contributory factors required for retrieval and analysis.

The taxonomy needs to strike a balance between capturing the required detail and usability as the individuals that apply the taxonomy (industry and CAA) will not be subject matter experts in the field.

For the large majority of MORs that are processed the taxonomy adequately captures the HF elements involved. Feedback on coding practices, monitoring and continual learning by the capability teams and Safety Data help to ensure that the events are coded to the required standard.

Status

Closed

It is recommended that operators show clear evidence of operational control as defined in AMC1 ORO.GEN.110 (c), ensuring that there is a clear tasking process separating the customer and the flight crew.

 

Recommendation Response

 

Although this recommendation was directed at operators, the CAA acknowledged a need for guidance in both understanding and implementation.

Safety Notice 2022/005 - Commercial, Organisations and Client Pressure in Flight Operations, was published on 18 July 2022 to address this Recommendation, as well as AAIB Safety Recommendation 2021-031, with the purpose of highlighting the risks associated with commercial pressure and the importance of separating the customer from the flight crew when making operational decisions.

Verifying and monitoring the implementation of this Safety Notice has been incorporated into routine oversight activity, and the prevalence of commercial pressure has been considered when assessing operators’ safety management systems. Where identified as a hazard, commercial pressure can be highlighted at entity level and/or sector level, resulting in further engagement/promotion at the various industry forums attended by the CAA.

 

Status

Closed