On Air, Issue 17: Data for Safety - Editorial

Big Data at European Level
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Luc Tytgat, Strategy & Safety Management Director, EASA

A co-operative partnership between EU bodies and industry is nothing new in the EU.  But an innovative programme such as Data4Safety (D4S) has not happened before.  D4S aims at taking advantage of all the innovative digital technologies (such as Big Data & Data Mining) and gathering all relevant safety data in one place. This will give the possibility of identifying and assessing systemic and emerging safety risks in aviation.

There are major and important programmes run by the airline operators or the national civil aviation authorities but so far none of the programmes provide a consolidated version. Despite all the collaboration efforts and data sharing, the fact is that today in Europe the wealth of safety data is not exploited as a whole and the analytical capacity is not synergised to its full extend. 

Well, with D4S we would like to change this approach.  The programme intends to gather the efforts and provide the needed synergies. As a result, D4S will become the tool to enable strategic risk management in aviation at the European level. 

The D4S guiding principles of collaboration, voluntariness, confidentially and Just Culture have been inscribed in a Charter that was signed by D4S founding members (*) .

We aim at enabling the shift from the reactive approach to safety to a truly proactive and preventive mode.  D4S is not an EASA Project, all stakeholders within the aviation community will share data, information, knowledge and their expertise in order to deliver benefits to all players in safety and possibly environment.

And not to forget, as Patrick Ky, EASA Executive Director said: “Data4Safety is a revolutionary project that will enable aviation stakeholders to enhance safety in aviation and may also be available to other means of transportation in the future, rail and maritime”.


(*) On the 31st of March 2017, key actors from the aviation sector agreed to join in a co-operative partnership the Data4Safety programme initiated by EASA. Participants were: EasyJet, British Airways, Iberia, Deutsche Lufthansa, Ryanair, Airbus, the Boeing Company, the European Cockpit Association (ECA), the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency (AESA), Direction de la Sécurité de l'aviation civile (DSAC France), the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) (Airlines, Aircraft Manufacturers, National Aviation Authorities and Pilot Unions).