Background

Ramp-related MORs currently account for between 7% and 10% of all MORs.  In 2006 the CAA, in conjunction with industry, conducted a ‘fishbone analysis’ of representative ground handling MORs and drafted a set of recommendations to the CAA and industry to assist in mitigation or reducing the incidents.  The Ground Handling Operations Safety Team (GHOST) was created in 2007 as a result, having identified the need to form a multi-disciplined CAA/Industry group to address some of the issues.  Currently the CAA has no direct remit to regulate ground handling activities, with the exception of the small specialist area of Dangerous Goods, so the purpose of GHOST was to influence and share best practices across industry.

In 2009 the CAA presented its concerns regarding the increase in 'Safety Performance Indicator 2', the measure of high risk events to UK large public transport aircraft. This led to the definition of the 'Significant 7' key risks and the creation of new joint Industry/CAA task forces to look at these in more detail.  As a longstanding group, the GHOST has become the Significant 7 task force looking at ground handling incidents. Further information on the task forces and the conference held in October 2010 can be found at Partnership in Safety Conference 2010.

Composition of the Team and Terms of Reference

GHOST was formed from the original members of the ‘fishbone’ analysis group, and a chairman was appointed from Flight Operations. Since inception the team has grown, through personal invitation, industry representation has developed and has now become a well-established working group which fosters co-operation and the sharing of best-practice.  For details of the team, see GHOST participating organisations and representatives' contact details.

Terms of reference, key tasks and deliverables are outlined in GHOST Terms of Reference and Deliverables 2011.