managing safety data the tokai experience for the air navigation service providers

Abstract Socio-technical systems such as the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system have become increasingly complex in the last decades and a call for systematic data analyses is necessary to manage operations and related criticalities. In the context of risk and safety management, it thus become central to allow structured and complete in-depth understanding of safety performance, especially in relation to safety events (accidents, incidents, near-misses). Following relevant international and EU regulations (ICAO Annex 13, EC Directive 2003/42/EC, EU 376/2014, etc.), EUROCONTROL developed the TOKAI (Toolkit for ATM Occurrence Investigation) as a tool to support occurrence investigation and generate a structured repository for safety data management. This paper aims to present the general features of TOKAI, also in line with the legislative context. The paper provides an overview on how incident data from TOKAI may contribute to support an effective data management in aviation, by means of exemplar statistical analysis to support the decision-making at different organizational levels

High-level architectures for contingency planning in Air Traffic Management

Over the last eighteen months, a project team from the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation has worked with a task force drawn from regulators and Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) to draft guidelines for contingency planning. The intention is to help Air Traffic Management (ATM) organisations prepare for the potential loss of a major unit following possible scenarios that include but are not limited to systems failure, terrorist actions, floods, fires and pandemics. As part of this work, a study was conducted to identify current and best practice in contingency planning. This paper provides a brief introduction to the different architectures that were identified. The intention is to help service providers identify the different ways in which they can prepare resources for a wide range of threats to key components of national safety-critical infrastructures

Safety intelligence: Incremental proactive risk management for holistic aviation safety performance

Aviation safety is traditionally managed based on the analysis of accidents and incidents. Such strategies allowed aviation safety to evolve greatly, but have the major drawback of being reactive, i.e. mostly based on hindsight. Acknowledging the need to avoid restricting safety analysis only to negative aspects, such as errors and failures, regulations progressively aimed to delve into the complexity of the work domain. In this context, EUROCONTROL developed a reporting framework harmonized with EU and ICAO regulations, the Toolkit for ATM Occurrence Investigation (TOKAI), which allows a structured and unified reporting for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). This paper, starting from the theoretical benefits of a structured strategy for learning from events, and the operational application of TOKAI in line with EU and ICAO regulations, provides examples on how an incremental proactive risk assessment strategy can be structured, starting from reporting of adverse events. The paper includes examples of data-driven analyses and holistic safety dashboard that can be developed using TOKAI data to empower the decision-makers' Safety Intelligence. All this is possible by the adoption of a neutralised language/taxonomy that facilitates a similar conversation for both occurrences but also day to day operations

Managing safety data: The TOKAI experience for the air navigation service providers

Socio-technical systems such as the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system have become increasingly complex in the last decades and a call for systematic data analyses is necessary to manage operations and related criticalities. In the context of risk and safety management, it thus become central to allow structured and complete in-depth understanding of safety performance, especially in relation to safety events (accidents, incidents, near-misses). Following relevant international and EU regulations (ICAO Annex 13, EC Directive 2003/42/EC, EU 376/2014, etc.), EUROCONTROL developed the TOKAI (Toolkit for ATM Occurrence Investigation) as a tool to support occurrence investigation and generate a structured repository for safety data management. This paper aims to present the general features of TOKAI, also in line with the legislative context. The paper provides an overview on how incident data from TOKAI may contribute to support an effective data management in aviation, by means of exemplar statistical analysis to support the decision-making at different organizational levels

Democratizing business intelligence and machine learning for air traffic management safety

The ways in which Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) monitor safety performance is strongly influenced by international regulations, standards, and agreements, although each State may also add its own local requirements. Particularly in the case of more mature ANSPs, the regulatory safety performance obligations are merely the tip of the iceberg in the undertaken safety performance activities. Much of the indicators, methods and tools are over and above what is required by regulations, either national or international. In modern settings, the usage of Business Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions can be enumerated under the continuous chasing of strategies to foster ANSPs’ safety intelligence capacities towards higher standards. This manuscript shows the development process of an integrated data-driven framework for self-service BI and ML on safety reporting data for the air traffic management system. The proposed framework firstly focuses on the development process of a BI architecture to extract meaningful knowledge from multiple data sources. Then, it progresses discussing how ML solutions may support gaining a deeper understanding of system's performance and delineating specific safety recommendations. The explorative application of the proposed framework in multiple European ANSPs provides the basis for sharing lessons learned and outlining a possible path to start democratizing safety intelligence in aviation

The interaction between safety culture and degraded modes: a survey of national infrastructures for air traffic management

This paper presents the initial results from a study into the interaction between safety culture and degraded modes of operation in European Air Traffic Management (ATM). Degraded modes occur when operators struggle to maintain levels of service eventhough key elements of their infrastructure have failed. Safety culture can be simply described as ‘the way safety is done around here’ – emphasizing that it is concerned with the realities of safety, and not necessarily what people say should be done. Although safety culture therefore deals necessarily with attitudes, beliefs and even feelings – so-called ‘soft’ phenomena – it does not mean that these are any less important than more objective and visible safety management artifacts such as standards and procedures, and so on. Poor safety culture is often linked to the causes of major accidents and incidents. Recent initiatives in ATM, including the European Safety Programme and its precursor, the Strategic Safety Action Plan, have also recognized that degraded modes of operation played a significant role in previous adverse events. Operators often reveal a high degree of tolerance for degraded infrastructures. There is a ‘can do’ attitude, whereby staff struggle to maintain operations when it might be more prudent to reduce the level of service or even close airspace in order to maintain levels of safety. The high level objectives of this project are: (1) to identify safety cultural aspects that influence tolerance to degraded modes and (2) to identify ‘best practices’ that Air Navigation Service Providers can apply to deal with degraded mode of operations

Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometric microanalysis of crystalline deposits following evaporation of CO3_3H−^-, Mg2+^{2+} and Ca2+^{2+} containing aqueous solutions

This paper is the first application of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and of energy dispersive selection microanalysis (EDS) to the study of natural spa waters used as sprays in current dermatological practice; the aim was to relate the mineral composition of the spray to the sensitory perception recorded by the patients. Crystallized deposits were first obtained on a collodion film, from two spa waters mainly containing hydrogenocarbonate, calcium and magnesium ions, but differing by their Mg/Ca ratio. In order to understand the types of crystals formed, mineral solutions of simpler composition were prepared and submitted to the same process. Among the crystalline varieties of calcium carbonate, calcite and vaterite were characterized; aragonite could not be detected in spa waters deposits, despite the presence of magnesium, which favours the crystallization of this orthorhombic form in the artificial solutions