Flight Safety in Switzerland and in Europe.doc

flight safety in switzerland and in europewerner marty, werner.martyrega.chmarkus rieder, markus.riederrega.chflight safety officersregap.o. box 1414, 8058 zurich-airport, switzerlandat rega, flight safety plays a key role. with its fleet of five eurocopter ec 145 and nine agusta a 109 k2 helicopters, rega flies approximately 9,000 missions each year. in 2001, after two new flight safety officers had completed their training, an incident reporting system was developed. around 60% of the incidents reported have resulted in measures being implemented; procedures have been modified, crews provided with relevant information and technical alterations carried out. projects geared towards avoiding accidents have been introduced, such as remove (the removal of no longer used aviation obstacles), flarm (collision warning system), special training and standard operation procedures (sops). other air-rescue organisations in europe are also currently in the process of developing systems of this kind and a cooperation is being strived for. however, if flight safety is to be increased further in future, the regulatory bodies must cut back on the volume of paperwork required and support the development and introduction of new procedures and processes to a greater degree. manufacturers are called on to also develop high-performance helicopters for high altitudes. in order to reduce damage to the environment, it is important that more flight simulators are made available for training purposes.who is rega?rega helicopters transport medical assistance direct to the scene of the accident. during a helicopter or air-ambulance mission, a physician is a standard member of the crew. rega is an independent, non-profit foundation and a corporate member of the swiss red cross. its most senior executive body is the foundation board. a senior management team, comprising three people, is responsible for the day-to-day business.regas head office is situated at the rega center at zurich-kloten airport. this is also where the operations centre, the aircraft base for the three air-ambulances and the maintenance works for the helicopters and jets are located. the ten helicopter bases are distributed throughout switzerland in such a way that, with the exception of the canton of valais, a helicopter can reach the scene of the accident within 15 minutes of the alarm being raised.picture 1. rega fleet in front of the rega centerrega operates five eurocopter ec 145 helicopters from its four lowland bases, while nine agusta a 109 k2 machines are stationed at its six mountain bases. three bases are operated in collaboration with partner organisations.picture 2. rega bases in switzerlandin addition to the approx. 5,000 missions that fly a doctor to the scene of the accident (primary missions), rega helicopters transfer some 3,000 patients who are already receiving medical care from one hospital to another (secondary missions). rega also transports organs, blood, medicaments and medical specialists. furthermore, it carries out approx. 1,000 flights to assist mountain farmers, for example, recovering injured or dead livestock.rega, as a non-profit foundation, is not subsidized by the state in any way and therefore totally relies on the financial support of its approximately 1.8 million patrons. these patrons pay an annual contribution amounting to chf 30.- for individuals or chf 70.- for families. presented at the international helicopter safety symposium 2005, montral, quebec, canada, september 26 - 29, 2005copyright 2005 by rega. all rights reservedstatistics: switzerlandregistered fixed-wing aircraft and helicoptersthe following diagram shows the number of fixed-wing aircraft under 5,700 kg mtow compared with the number of helicopters in switzerland.of the approximately 275 helicopters, around 20 are regularly used for rescue missions. diagram 1. comparison of the number of aircraft under 5,700 kg and the number of helicoptersaccidents involving fixed-wing aircraft and helicoptersstatistics clearly show that as far as registered fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters are concerned, helicopters account for a greater number of serious incidents and accidents. one reason for this is undoubtedly that in the course of their work, helicopters frequently operate in high altitudes in the mountains, in the vicinity of obstacles and in adverse meteorological conditions. diagram 2. comparison of the number of acc./ser. incidents involving fixed-wing aircraft and helicoptersflight safety in switzerlandvarious helicopter companies in switzerland have now begun to develop a flight safety program. efforts are being undertaken to be able to utilise the synergies gained from the reporting system in future. at the present time, no statistical data relating to incidents, etc. is available. flight safety at regaflight safety programregas foundation board and senior management support regas flight safety program (fsp). the fsp aims to make an effective contribution towards ensuring that the operators ground, flight and maintenance activities are planned, managed and performed in such a way that the operations are completed with no damage to persons, equipment or the environment.the fsp focuses on identifying and evaluating potential hazards in line with predetermined criteria before flights are carried out.training of the flight safety officersuntil 2000, one person was responsible for flight safety at rega. in 2001, two new flight safety officers were appointed, one from each of the occupational groups, pilots and paramedics/aircraft mechanics.these flight safety officers attended a three-day safety management course at the hai trade show in 2001 in los angeles. in 2004, they took part in the courses, “aviation safety program management” and “aircraft accident investigation”, held at the university of southern california in los angeles. attendance at two further courses is planned for the future. incident reporting systemin 2001, an incident reporting system was introduced. the purpose of this reporting system is to record incidents and weaknesses relating to flight operations. the data is used to improve flight safety and not to carry out disciplinary measures. an air safety report (asr) can be completed by any member of the crew via the intranet. reports can also be submitted confidentially. the various reports are processed on the intranet by the flight safety officers. once an asr has been received, the sender receives a feedback. a committee made up of representatives from the flight operations and technical divisions meets twice a year to deal with technical matters arising from the air safety reports. during these meetings, improvements and solutions are sought relating to issues in the spheres of incidents, serious incidents, airprox, accidents and safety inputs. 60% of all reports received result in appropriate measures being taken, such as the immediate issue of information to crews, modification of procedures and processes, modifications relating to equipment or aircraft, or changes in the training program. the reporting system is also used to identify trends. when the asr has been dealt with, with or without ensuing measures being implementing, the sender is informed correspondingly by the flight safety officers. diagram 3. development of the air safety reportsactivities relating to regas flight safety programtwice a year, a flight safety information dossier is drawn up, comprising reports on incidents that have occurred both at home and abroad, and distributed to all the rega bases, as well as to other interested parties. every four months, the air safety reports are summarized and the summary published internally. the flight safety officers present the latest developments in the field of flight safety at the pilots and hems crew members meetings. the latest findings, mainly concerning incidents relating to human external cargo (hec) missions, are examined in the course of the annual training weeks. after a serious incident or accident has occurred, an internal investigation is carried out in consultation with the head of flight operations and the senior pilot. the findings enable measures to be implemented as soon as possible to prevent such or similar incidents happening again. accident preventionrega aims to create favourable prerequisites for accident-free missions by implementing the following four measures: “remove” projectin switzerland, there are around 7,500 registered cables, aerial cableways, power lines and antennae in sparsely populated areas over 25 meters above ground level and in densely populated areas over 60 meters above ground level. it is assumed that a further 1,500 aviation obstacles exist that also meet these criteria but have not been officially registered. the project, “remove”, was launched by rega and the swiss air force in 2001. it is supported by the federal office for civil aviation (foca), as well as by commercial helicopter firms and the swiss military. the objective of the project is to remove all the aviation obstacles that are no longer in use. the owners of these installations were informed of these activities via the media and in a personal letter. to date, 172 such installations have been dismantled; a further 97 are waiting to be removed. in addition, 62 facilities for which registration is mandatory have now been registered, 98 faulted and 267 no longer existing installations have been removed from the records. flarm (collision warning system)flarm (www.flarm.ch) is an aircraft anti-collision system that was initially developed to reduce mid-air collisions between gliders. the system couples a u-blox gps receiver and a radio transceiver that can broadcast the position of any aircraft to other pilots who are using the system. it then uses acoustic and visual alarm signals to warn pilots of a potential collision or of fixed obstacles, such as cables or antennae. in switzerland, more than 90% of gliders are already equipped with flarm. rega, too, is planning to install these devices in its helicopters in the course of the forthcoming year, thus reducing the risk of colliding with other aircraft and obstacles. picture 3. flarm collision warning systemtrainingafter joining rega, all pilots, hems crew members and physicians are prepared for their various tasks by undergoing standard training programs. rega operates an in-house flying school for this purpose. once a year, a training week is held at each base, during which check flights using rescue hoists, hoist abseil devices and long lines (up to 225m), as well as evacuations of persons from aerial cableways and chairlifts and helicopter departure in fog (hdf) drills, are performed. in addition, the rescue specialists who support the helicopter crews during difficult missions in the mountains undergo further operational and medical training. rega also has a section that is devoted to training its partners. here, members of the police, fire and ambulance services are drilled in landing procedures and taught how to behave when dealing with a helicopter. standard operation procedures (sops)over the past years, standard operation procedures (sops) have been developed for rescue missions employing the rescue hoist, hoist abseil device and long line, as well as cablecar evacuations, firefighting using water buckets, water rescues, avalanche rescues, night flights, helicopter departure in fog (hdf) and crew communication. these form the basis for the various types of missions. in justified exceptional cases, these procedures can, however, be deviated from.flight safety in europeregas flight safety officers foster ties with the safety departments of other air-rescue organisations in europe, with the aim of building up a cooperation. at a first meeting held in germany in february 2005, it was agreed that the exchange of experiences should be intensified and, if possible, a joint reporting system set up.to this end, regas reporting system is currently published on the internet at www.rega.ch/asr/. all interested companies, both in switzerland and abroad, can express their opinions and wishes relating to such a system by e-mail. during the second half of 2005, a decision will be made as to what form this joint reporting system with a database should take. it is planned that the flight safety officers should meet twice a year. demands made on the regulatory bodiesless paperworkin recent years, the volume of paperwork has increased substantially, leaving less and less time to deal with the actual task in hand, that of air-rescue. more actionwhen new regulations are being drawn up, it is important that the operators are involved from the very beginning. this ensures that the regulations are solution-oriented and that they can also be implemented. in future, whenever projects to increase flight safety are launched by the operators, the regulatory bodies need to provide greater support as regards administration and certification. further support is necessary if the airspace structure has to be adapted to new procedures (e.g. low level ifr).standardisation of procedures70-80% of all procedures and processes need to be standardised. however, it must also be possible to deviate from these standard procedures in justified exceptional cases. demands made on the manufacturersthe helicopters of the future should have a cat. a performance up to 10,000 feet, as well as an all-weather capability.in future, flight simulators are indispensable when it comes to, for example, being able to practice emergency procedures and night flights during the short summer nights. simulators help to reduce noise in densely populated regions, such as in switzerland, and also meet the growing demands to protect the environment.conclusio