8 years for ATC murder

[Proceed As Cleared]

In english:

Skyguide reporting more incidents

Crash of Ueberlingen leads to a new safety culture in air traffic in Europe

The numbers look frightening: In 2004 77 airproxes were reported in Switzerland.

An airprox means, that the minimum distance between two aircraft has dropped either below 9 kilometers horizontally, 300 meters vertically or 5.5 kilometers in approach.

In 1998 the number of dangerous airproxes was at 20 and has increased significantly since.
That the incidents with a high risk of collision have deacreased from 25 (in 2003) to 16 (in 2003), doesn't inspire confidence either. In Germany, only three airproxes of this category had been reported, in Great Britain it was only one.

Do passengers have to expect the increased likelihood of a crash over Switzerland?
No, says Erik Merckx, Head of Safety Enhancement Business at Eurocontrol in Brussels. "I'm reducing these numbers to the fact, that the reporting culture in Switzerland is exceptionally well developed."
This is being appreciated by Eurocontrol: "Authorities and those involved can learn from mistakes reported by pilots, ATC and airlines, and draw their conclusions." According to statistics from various countries, Merckx notices that since recently, more but less serious airproxes have been reported.

Since 2001, Skyguide is building up a safety management, for which 22 people are working.
In 2004, 1180 bigger and smaller incidents have been reported to them, from near miss to worn aircraft tyres. 90 percent of those reports are forwarded to the FOCA (Federal Office of Civil Aviation), which then enacts safety regulations for all involved.
Airproxes do not always happen because of ATC, but the reasons can be found with everyone in aviation.

Skyguide CEO Alain Rossier says, that it wasn't easy, to enforce the new philosophie: "In normal life, one gets punished for every mistake. We on the other hand want our controllers to report any irregularity. This culture of trust we had to build up."
In order to create this trust, so called safety improvement reports can be filed confidentially. Although this type of reporting is available, 95 percent of reports have been signed with the names of those involved. The crash over Ueberlingen on July 1st also resulted in a setback for safety management. "If such an accident happens, the public is looking for a culprit, this is part of human nature. This accident was a shock for all the staff and we will never forget it."

But the collision over Ueberlingen had positive implications as well. In order to prevent such accidents in the furure from happening, Eurocontrol initiated a strategic safety action plan in late 2002, which should improve the quality of ATC in 41 countries.
Interim results of this process were published in March 2005. Eurocontrol determines that regarding reporting, improvements are necessary. "Although it is indisputable, that the exchange of information about incidents would have big advantages, several countries and companies are concerned, that their performance regarding safety could be compared to their disadvantage", it says in the report.
That these numbers at this stage are not in favour of Switzerland, is being accepted by the FOCA, says spokesperson Daniel Goering. "We as the regulatory authority support an active reporting culture. Skyguide, in case of doubt, reports one occurence too many rather than too little. This is positive, because one can learn also from situations which finally didn't lead to a near miss."

Not only Eurocontrol is striving to get convincing and therefore comparable numbers. According to Jean Overney, head of the BFU (Office of air accident investigations), the collision over Ueberlingen "lead to a worldwide shock": But the data are still variable.
Under the leadership of the BFU, a workshop took place in Belp (Canton of Berne) in mid October, where investigation authorities from Germany, France and Great Britain agreed to harmonise their incident reporting. Switzerland is now working on a proposal regarding standardization, which will be discussed next year amongst the parties involved.

Draw your own conclusion.

Mine is:

Alpha Leader, you're a sad case.