Significant Seven Safety Risks

Information on the key safety risks relating to UK commercial air transport.

The CAA ‘Significant Seven’ safety risks were identified following analysis of global fatal accidents and high-risk occurrences involving large UK commercial air transport aeroplanes.

For each of these issues, joint CAA/industry task forces were created to study the safety issue in-depth and make recommendations on how their risk could be mitigated. Task force outputs were consolidated, prioritised and then shared and debated with industry at a Safety Conference in 2010.

The key outcome from this Conference was an agreement that the Significant Risks as identified by the CAA were indeed those that industry was also worried about and that broadly the right actions/next steps were identified by the task forces.  The conference also agreed that loss of control and runway safety (primarily runway excursions) should be prioritised over the other safety issues.  This prioritisation is reflected in the actions contained in the new CAA Safety Plan. 

 

Loss of control:Through improved flight control monitoring, use of aircraft automation and manual flying skills we are aiming to reduce the risk of loss of control occurrences.
Runway Excursion:To help reduce the risk of runway excursions, we are aiming to reduce unstable/de-stabilised approaches, improve information broadcast to pilots on expected braking action on contaminated runways and improve safety areas around runways.
Controlled Flight into Terrain:We are working to reduce the risk of serious incidents that occur during non-precision approaches (NPAs) through encouraging the replacement of traditional NPAs with Approach Vertical Guidance (APV) type approaches, and reviewing processes for gaining APV approval
Runway Incursion:We are actively promoting the European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Incursions to reduce the risks of these occurring at UK aerodromes.
Airborne Conflict:Through updating guidance on Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) training and working with ICAO to amend their guidance, we aim to reduce the risk of mid-air collisions associated with incorrect responses to ACAS warnings.
Ground Handling:We are working with industry to raise awareness of the risks associated with ground handling.  The primary aim is to reduce the risks of incidents linked to loading errors
Fire:We are developing training campaigns to raise fire safety awareness and to reduce the risks of an in-flight hidden fire through a reduction of wiring related fire/smoke events.

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