Cockpit Flash articles
The New Occurrence Reporting in a Nutshell

Cockpit Flash articles
The fear of prosecution or reprisals at company level after reporting an event is still very much present nowadays in some airlines and it discourages aviation staff to report occurrences. The consequence: insufficient occurrence reporting, broken feed-back loop and reduced ability to pro-actively achieve safety improvements by learning from the past. This is why much effort is invested to encourage aviation professionals to report safety matters.
The new EU Occurrence Reporting Regulation EU 376/2014 is one key step in this direction. Applicable as of 15 Nov 2015, it requires aviation organisations to adopt and maintain a proactive Just Culture to facilitate the collection of key safety data and information and to protect the reports as well as the information.
But can we really expect any changes to the daily life of an airline pilot?
The new Occurrence Reporting Regulation (EU Reg. 376/2014) is a comprehensive framework and a set of standards for reporting, collecting, storing, protecting and disseminating the relevant safety information. It also introduces requirements on information analysis and adoption of follow-up safety actions at national level.
The regulation defines Just Culture as “A culture in which frontline operators or others are not punished for actions, omissions or decisions taken by them that are commensurate with their experience and training, but where gross negligence, wilful violations and destructive acts are not tolerated.”
For us – as pilots – the new Occurrence Reporting system means two things: Rights & Responsibilities.
It brings additional protection for the “reporter”: the one who is responsible for feeding the system will be protected against incrimination or attribution of blame.
But it also brings another important responsibility for us: to feed the aviation system with relevant information. This is key to understanding where the risks are, detecting ‘weak signals’, hazards and/or emerging safety trends. Through this, we effectively contribute to the prevention of incidents and accidents. Without our input, the system won’t work.
Source: ECA