In 2011, 13 percent of all accidents in European airspace were runway excursions. Globally, runway excursions are 19 percent of all accidents.
"Since 2008 IATA has made reducing runway excursions a priority," said Guenther Matschnigg, IATA's senior vice president for safety, operations and infrastructure. "This Action Plan is the latest element in our global effort, complementing the Runway Excursion Risk Reduction (RERR) toolkit which was revised in 2011. Together they build a common awareness of the issue among the key players. And that will allow us to continue to reduce the risks and the occurrences."
IATA's contributions to the Action Plan include:
• Best practices and recommendations identified in the preparation of the RERR toolkit.
• IATA member airline expertise in preventing runway excursions gathered through their Safety Management Systems (SMS).
Although the focus of the Action Plan has been on preventing runway excursions in the European region, IATA acknowledges that runway excursions are a global problem and therefore the content of the Action Plan reinforces the need to comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) provisions for the safety of global aviation.
"Teamwork is critical,"Matschnigg says. "The Action Plan ensures that all the players in Europe are aligned and focused on a common set of tools to improve runway safety. Along with making European aviation even safer, it sets a good example of cooperation that could be taken-up in other regions." |
