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Annual Safety Review 2014
Emerging Issues
PAGE
136
Emerging Issues
Scope
This chapter covers some of the recent and emerging safety issues, which are outside the normal scope of the
EASA Annual Safety Review. A number of new and emerging challenges for the aviation safety community have
become apparent during the course of 2014. The loss of MH17 highlighted the risks that an unstable and un‑
predictable world represent to global air travel. This chapter will outline some of the work that has been done
to consider the improved provision of information to the aviation community on the applicable level of risk in
overflying conflict zones. In addition, this chapter will highlight the findings of the technical investigations into
occurrences over the high seas involving military aircraft and on radar detection losses over Central Europe in
June 2014. Finally, given the increasing use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAS), the chapter will consider the pre‑
paratory work that has been carried out to support the future analysis of this sector of aviation.
Risks to Civil Aviation
in Conflict Zones
Following the loss Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, there has been a general consensus that states shall share their
information on conflict zones and risk.Numerous initiatives have been taken to inform the airlines about the risks
posed to their international flights. At the global level, in April 2015, ICAO launched a central repository that pro‑
vides a means by which information on conflict zones and risks to aviation that is voluntary reported by States
may be recorded. This database already contains a number of notifications and its operation and usefulness will
be evaluated by the end of 2015.
Within the EU Member States, there is high‑level commitment to cooperate and share information resulting from
risk assessments performed at the national level. The European Parliament has encouraged the European Com‑
mission to support and coordinate these efforts. There is also a clear expectation from the aviation community
that they be informed in a qualified manner concerning possible risks associated with their flight routes.