What is behind 376/2014 Regulation…

For the past year, we have been informing you about a new European legislation that came into force on 15 November 2015. Given the important changes this text brings to our daily operations, we made it the central theme of this Cockpit Flash, where you will read about several aspects of it. Three main changes are worth stressing: the reporter is better protected; however, this brings more responsibilities to the pilots, who now have a legal obligation to report occurrences (the list of events that must be reported has been extended, including fatigue and fume events); the concept of Just Safety Culture is now officially introduced and plays a central role.

Although the regulation is clear enough, BeCA still has a lot of work ahead to ensure its correct implementation at company and national levels.

What have we done?

First of all, BeCA has been deeply involved at European level, through our active participation in the European Cockpit Association working group on Flight Data, which took part in the drafting of the legislation. Our expert and chairman of the Air Safety Committee, Rudy Pont, is one of the Just Culture Ambassadors appointed by ECA to convey the main messages of the text (you can read below his full interview).

Secondly, we have worked hard at company level, especially following our 2015 Safety Survey. The results gave us a rather clear image of the reporting and just safety cultures in each airline. This survey is an essential tool for everyone (not only BeCA, but also operators and the BCAA) who wants to have an idea of the reality within airlines and cockpits in Belgium today. After presenting disidentified results to the BCAA, we contacted the safety departments of each airline to present them the results and we have managed to establish cooperation with some of them. We will therefore keep them informed on future evolutions, positive or negative.

Finally, in order to promote just safety culture in our daily operations, BeCA has also extended the hotline services so our members can inform us of any breach of Just Culture. BeCA Vice-Presidents will be in charge of dealing with the requests.

What will we do?

In theory, the European legislation protects the employee who reports an occurrence. To ensure the implementation of this principle into the Belgian labour legislation, BeCA is working together with the BCAA to finalise the legal text.

Secondly, the regulation also requires every Member State to create a so-called appeal body. If, after reporting an occurrence, the pilot considers the protection principles have not been respected, he/she will be able to complain to this entity. We are currently discussing with the BCAA on how to establish this.

At company level, we need to end once and for all the blame culture that still exists in some airlines. Event review boards must also be established (should you want to know more about these boards, read our article below).

The road is still long before the full implementation of the legislation, but participation from all pilots will be essential to initiate the change of mentality, for an efficient reporting system. It is our duty, as a professional association, to ensure our members are correctly informed and fully understand the legislation. We hope this special edition will be a useful tool for you. Do not forget to check our campaign webpage for more information and updates: www.beca.be/occurrencereporting.