Story ID: 
FSF Launches Safety Information Project
By: AIN Staff
Caption: The safety foundation is part of a group studying data collection in the Asia-Pacific and Pan-America regions.
Word Count: 502

The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is moving into the next phase of its data-sharing project with plans to hold workshops and develop guidance. The foundation launched its Global Safety Information Project (GSIP) last summer to help improve safety and advance data sharing by determining how information is collected and used throughout the Asia-Pacific and Pan-America regions.

The project builds on the FSF’s past efforts to develop safety tool kits and guidance that draw on common industry methods and best practices, said Mark Millam, vice president of technical for the foundation.

In recent months the foundation held a series of focus groups in the Asia-Pacific and Pan-America regions to gather information on how safety data is collected and used, and to discuss prevailing concerns about data sharing. Wellington, New Zealand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; New Delhi, India; and Panama City, Panama were among the cities where focus groups were held. The focus groups involved stakeholders ranging from operators and manufacturers to ATC organizations, investigatory agencies, flight data analyzers and legal experts.

“We’ve seen positive results with a diverse group of passionate safety professionals in our focus groups,” Millam said in announcing the initial results of the focus groups. The groups gave “balanced but preliminary insight” into collection systems. The participants expressed support for voluntary safety reporting programs, he said. International Civil Aviation Organization standards are pushing more stakeholders and government agencies to look at data-reporting and -sharing systems. But he added that stakeholders are interested not only in complying with ICAO standards but also because they see a benefit. “We have yet to find somebody who doesn’t see the value in doing this,” he said.

The discussions also revealed a number of concerns: the quality of the data and consistency of collection systems; inconsistencies in widespread sharing of the data; developing good mitigation systems from the data without adding to the regulatory burden; and protection of data.

The FSF created a website to support the project and report on its findings. Beginning next year it will host workshops in the targeted regions. The organization will use the information collected to develop guidance materials that can be used for safety data collection and sharing.

Ultimately the FSF hopes to develop tool kits to assist in the development of voluntary safety reporting systems. The idea is to make sure that best processes are used to gather data to advance safety, he said. The foundation also wants to help ensure safeguards are in place for the data collected. There will be different needs among various states and stakeholders, said Millam, and the foundation is hoping to develop tool kits that will “serve them all.”

While GSIP is focusing initially on Asia-Pacific and Pan-America, Millam did not rule out expansion into other regions. But he added that at this stage, while it establishes the program, the foundation doesn’t “want to spread too far and to too many places.”