From Joint Aviation Regulations to Just Safety Culture

By Capt. Alain Vanalderweireldt, BeCA President

SMS, FRMS, JSC, MORs… In this blurry world of acronyms, no wonder some of us get lost. As if they were aimed at confusing people. Actually, they are all related to one single objective: the continuous improvement of aviation safety. With the deadline for implementation of SMS approaching, we decided to dedicate most of this edition to this topic.

In 2000, the implementation of JAA regulations harmonized standards across all European airlines’ flight and maintenance procedures. The airlines  that barely met the old rules were therefore forced to either adapt or disappear.

After the implementation of these technical and administrative standards across most of the airline community, the next step was to look for front-line flight crew participation. This resulted in the adoption in 2003 of an EU Directive (2003/42/EC) encouraging reporting of occurrences (this text was implemented in the Belgian Law in 2005).

For the next 10 years, mandatory reporting was progressively and successfully implemented. It contributed to the development of a safety culture within airlines. The concept of Just Safety Culture, which encourages every pilot to report occurrences, even when generated by human mistakes, has become a widely accepted principle within the aviation community.

Unfortunately, reality does not always reflect theory. BeCA has indeed recently noticed serious drifts in the daily application of Just Safety Culture, which may affect reporting efficiency. We are closely monitoring these issues and we actively work within airlines to correct them.

The next 12 months will bring even more changes, as a new EU legally binding regulation (EU376/2014) will become effective as of 15 November 2015. This regulation will oblige airlines to implement an efficient reporting system, based on Safety Culture (this concept appears 11 times in the text).

We believe this new rule is a big step forward in the improvement of aviation safety. We are proud that BeCA, by actively participating in the work of our European structure (the European Cockpit Association), highly contributed to it. Nevertheless, it could become wishful thinking if pilots still feel uncomfortable to report every occurrence. An efficient reporting system, based on a Just Safety environment, is therefore a must. We will strive to ensure this new Regulation will not remain a “tick the box” exercise.