Regulation (EU) No 996/2010,
‘On The Investigation And Prevention Of Accidents And Incidents In Civil Aviation’, Article 2, states the following:
- (14) ‘safety investigation’ means a process conducted by a safety investigation authority for the purpose of accident and incident prevention which includes the gathering and analysis of information, the drawing of conclusions, including the determination of cause(s) and/or contributing factors and, when appropriate, the making of safety recommendations;
- (15) ‘safety recommendation’ means a proposal of a safety investigation authority, based on information derived from a safety investigation or other sources such as safety studies, made with the intention of preventing accidents and incidents;
It is important to note that:
‘A safety recommendation shall in no case create a presumption of blame or liability for an accident, serious incident or incident’
Article 18(5) of the above Regulation states that: ‘The addressee of a safety recommendation shall acknowledge receipt of the [Safety Recommendation] and inform the safety investigation authority which issued the recommendation within 90 days of the receipt of that letter, of the actions taken or under consideration, and where appropriate,
of the time necessary for their completion and where no action is taken, the reasons therefor.'
Furthermore, under Article 18(5) of the above Regulation, Member States are to record such Safety Recommendations, and the responses of the Addressee, into a central repository.
This is achieved through the use the Safety Recommendations Information System (SRIS).
Since the establishment of SRIS, discussion has taken place as to the level of access to the data base. This has culminated in a decision (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1128 of 1 July 2019), to amend Commission Decision 2012/780/EU to allow responses that are recorded on the SRIS EU database under Article 18(5) of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 to be made available to the general public through the public website (Public SRIS). The responses to be made public would be those recorded in the
SRIS EU database after the date of the Commission Decision.
Development of Safety Recommendations
When developing a Safety Recommendation, we consult those involved early in the investigation about the potential safety issues that have been identified and that need to be addressed. The preference is that those able to act and address the safety issue take this on board and carry out Safety Action proactively, thereby removing the need for a Safety Recommendation. This achieves the same goal of action being taken to prevent recurrence.
Should the safety issue remain, then a Safety Recommendation will be drafted. For consistency, at an early stage the Investigator-In-Charge will convene the Safety Recommendation committee to discuss the rationale for each recommendation, whether the evidence supports the identified safety issue and whether the addressee is best placed to act on the safety issue. The committee then discusses the text of each Safety Recommendation before it goes to the addressee for consultation.
A Safety Recommendation may be issued at any time and will appear in a Special Bulletin, a Bulletin report or a Formal Report.
Action by addressees
A Safety Recommendation is just that, a recommendation, and there is no obligation on the addressee to act on it. However, there is a legal requirement that addressees respond within 90 days of receipt of Safety Recommendations, giving their proposed actions and when they will be carried out, or if no action is to take place the reasons why.
Response assessment - classification
When a response is received from an addressee, the SIA has 60 days to assess and classify the response. There are currently six possible classifications. Three of these classifications relate to assessing the adequacy of the response.
- ‘Not adequate’ assessment means that the SIA considers the response does not address the intent of the Safety Recommendation, nor does it address the safety issue concerned.
- A ‘Partially adequate’ assessment means the SIA considers the response goes some way to meeting the intent of the Safety Recommendation and the action will address the safety issue to a certain extent, but further action would be required to fully address the issue identified.
- An ‘Adequate’ assessment means the SIA considers the response fully meets the intent of the Safety Recommendation and the action is expected to address the safety issue.
Importantly, it is only the response that is being assessed and an Adequate response does not mean that all the actions have been completed and the safety issue has been addressed. When the response is assessed as Not Adequate or Partially Adequate, the SIA may write to the addressee with the reasons for the assessment and may request that the response and proposed actions be reviewed.
Closing Safety Recommendations
Safety Recommendations are kept open as long as it is expected to receive further responses from the addressee. When no further response is expected, the recommendation is generally closed.
A closed status does not necessarily mean the actions for a Safety Recommendation are complete, nor that the Safety Issue has been addressed. In some cases, it is clear from their response that the addressee does not intend to carry out the recommended actions.
Ongoing monitoring of actions to Safety Recommendations
Regulation (EU) No 996/2010, ‘On The Investigation And Prevention Of Accidents And Incidents In Civil Aviation’, Article 18(4) states that:
‘Each entity receiving a safety recommendation, including the authorities responsible for civil aviation safety at the Member State and Union level, shall implement procedures to monitor the progress of the action taken in response to the safety recommendations received’.
Publication of Safety Recommendations and responses
Article 18(5) of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 states, 'Member States are to record such Safety Recommendations, and the responses of the Addressee, into a central repository. This is achieved through the use the Safety Recommendations Information System (SRIS).
Since the establishment of SRIS, discussion has taken place as to the level of access to the data base. This has culminated in a decision (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1128 of 1 July 2019) to amend Commission Decision 2012/780/EU to allow responses that are recorded on the SRIS EU database under Article 18(5) of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 to be made available to the general public through the public website (Public SRIS). The responses to be made public would be those recorded in the SRIS EU database after the date of the Commission Decision.
The aim of Public SRIS, is to increase the level of transparency, whereby the reasons behind the issuing of a Safety Recommendation, and the actions of an Addressee to such Safety Recommendations (if any) can be viewed by the public.
The Safety Recommendations on SRIS are publicly viewable on the
