EUROCONTROL meets with all 9 FAB safety experts

Forty-four experts from EUROCONTROL, the nine Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs), twenty-two Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) and four National Supervisory Authorities (NSAs) met to discuss how to harmonise safety cases and safety roadmap approaches in the context of FABs.

The workshop, which took place in Sarajevo, was organised by EUROCONTROL ESP+ Programme with the support of Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation (BHDCA), in the context of the Single European Sky. It targeted the safety, operational and engineering experts as well as managers of ANSPs involved in FAB developments. All nine FABs participated with their leading safety experts present at the workshop.

This was a first opportunity to see how each FABs is building their Safety Assessments and how they are developing their Safety Management System (SMS) roadmaps in order to harmonise the SMSs of participant ANSPs. Furthermore, the participants discussed extensively the EU’s FAB Implementing Rule and associated guidance material as well as the approach of each FAB to meeting the legal requirements. Finally, during the event the participants shared the knowledge on what is planned in the first Reference Period for Safety KPIs within each FAB.

“Several best practices are built by each FAB and the seminar is part of the ES2 project initiative of sharing experience to increase the SMS maturity – said Tony Licu Head of the Safety Unit in the Directorate Network Manager. While acknowledging that one size does not fit all, the ESP+ programme is of the view that sharing knowledge amongst ANSPs is beneficial in improving the individual approaches and is a road for excellence.”

The experts agreed unanimously that the creation of a FAB requires an “organisational change” safety case rather than the well known “operational change” safety case. Many excellent examples were presented during the workshop, all of which can be used as ‘best practice’.

“We will work with all FABs and EUROCONTROL Safety Team in an effort to shape similar overarching arguments for all FABs Safety Cases that will meet the requirements laid down in IR176/2010” added Tony Licu.