ECCAIRS

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ECCAIRS

• Wietse Post
• Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• Institute for the Protection and Security of the
  Citizen
• Reinhard Menzel
• Safety Analysis
• European Aviation Safety Agency
• 4 June 2008
• St Petersburg
• EU-FAA Safety Conference

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Contents

• The ECCAIRS System
• Objective
• From data to knowledge
• The ECCAIRS concept
• ECCAIRS use
• Status
• ECCAIRS taxonomies
• Background
• Challenge
• Approach
• Taxonomy sources and development
• Taxonomy development tools

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Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est

• Knowledge is power
• Sir Francis Bacon
• English author, courtier, philosopher
• (1561 - 1626)

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ECCAIRS objective (1993)
Improve air safety by bringing together the
knowledge derived from the collection of
incompatible occurrence reporting systems from
various (member) States.
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From data to knowledge

• No safety improvement without knowledge
• No knowledge without analysis of data
• No data analysis without access to integrated
  data
• No integrated data without accepted standard
  tools and standard taxonomies
• To have a successful aviation safety knowledge
  base the first task of ECCAIRS has been to create
  a stable foundation for the collection,
  integration and dissemination of incident data.
• Co-operative network of EU authorities and
  investigation bodies
• Appropriate legislation at EU and national level
• Only then will it become possible to perform
  analysis on EU wide data

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The ECCAIRS concept
MEPHISTO DINER Conversion and Integration
platforms Regulation (EC) No 1321/2007
ECCAIRS Reporting System Directive
94/56/EC Directive 2003/42/EC
Taxonomy ADREP 2000
Grapher, AWB, Exporter, API and 3rd party tools
like B.O. Mathlab Jointly developed and shared
tools
WebDAS/B.O. DADIS Regulation (EC) No 1330/2007
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ECCAIRS use EU AIB and CAA
Source ECCAIRS Portal 19-May-2008
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Non-exhaustive list of other organisations
Source ECCAIRS Portal 19-May-2008
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Status of ECCAIRS

• EU authorities and investigation bodies have
  effectively implemented a global and integrated
  EU wide accident and incident reporting scheme
  based on an international standard (ICAO),
  enforced by appropriate legislation and backed up
  by a suite of free reporting tools.
• The same aviation community in Europe is now
  invited to start working on the aggregation and
  analysis of this data in order to extract
  knowledge that can be used to improve aviation
  safety.
• The success of the project has lead to
  international recognition and application beyond
  the borders of the EU.
• The main lesson learned is that there is no
  cheap, short term success possible. A long term
  vision, patience and a lot of determination are
  the key to success.

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• And now to part 2
• ECCAIRS taxonomies

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ECCAIRS taxonomies

• Facilitating analysis of
• safety data
• emanating from
• a cultural diverse environment

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Background EASA - Europe
31 States
62 reporting agencies (NAAs / AIBs)
22 languages
Different history and reporting cultures
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Safety Data Integration/Dissemination

• By law based on EU regulation
• Data to be provided to the European Commission
• Accidents, serious incidents (initial info /
  final data report)
• Occurrences collected under the EU Directive
  42/2003
• Access by EASA States
• Access by EASA

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Challenges

• Various reporting cultures
• Many different languages
• Limited knowledge of English language and its use
  by data providers
• Knowledge of languages of the data users limited
  (only knowledge of 7 languages in EASA Safety
  Analysis)
• Translations are costly / time consuming
• Volume of data
• Mix of languages (2221 possible combinations)
• Subject experts required for translation
• Consequence textual safety data are of limited
  value for analysis

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Approach

• Develop a common language in which to express
  occurrence information
• Classify and encode data as much as possible
• Requires rich coding system
• Sufficient level of detail
• Without being over-complicated to use
• Translatable into the EASA languages
• Note ECCAIRS already has English/French/German
  versions

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Source of taxonomies CAST-ICAO

• CAST-ICAO Common taxonomy team results
• Aircraft make/model
• Engine make/model
• Phases of flight
• Occurrence categories

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Source of taxonomiesECCAIRS Steering Committee

• ECCAIRS user community proposed changes
• Operators and Aerodromes
• Routine update
• More details on aircraft categories
• To cater for the light aircraft (powered gliders,
  hang gliders etc)
• Enhance event types to provide more details for
  incidents
• Aerodrome operations related incidents
• Incidents in general aviation
• Provide specific flight phases for gliders,
  balloons etc
• Non-routine updates are coordinated with ICAO and
  major stake-holders

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EASA sponsored taxonomy related change proposals

• Development of occurrence categories for
  helicopters
• To support helicopter safety initiatives
• Development of occurrence categories for light
  aircraft
• Existing categories do not cover many of the
  General Aviation concerns
• There is a need to support GA safety initiatives,
  and to
• Allow the trending of the GA (light aircraft)
  safety performance

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Taxonomy developments

• Done in close cooperation with FAA / NTSB and
  other international players
• Goal Integration of the data collected in Europe
  into the world wide aviation system
• Wide distribution of ECCAIRS through ICAO
• Exchangeability of data from Europe with Rest of
  the world
• To support safety initiatives worldwide
• To enhance the safety of the European citizens
  wherever they may travel.

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Technical implementationTaxonomy editor (ECCAIRS
4.2)
Detail tables
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Details of a table(events)
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Details Individual entry
Detailed description
Explanation
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Taxonomy editor

• Comfortable tool to update taxonomies
• Automatic identification and flagging of changes
• Export to other software possible
• Used for ECCAIRS 4.0 to ECAIRS 4.2
• New tool for 4.3 under development (draft
  introduction late May)

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Summary

• Harnessing safety data in Europe means adapting
  to cultural diversity
• A common aviation language has been developed
  using a rich classification for reportable data
• Efforts continue to update and harmonize the
  taxonomies with assistance of ICAO and major
  stakeholders (FAA / NTSB/ TSB Canada etc)
• ECCAIRS is a common tool available to all States
  to implement a common taxonomy for safety data
  collection, exchange and analsysis.

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Any questions?