ICAO, Flight Safety Foundation formalize new cooperative agreement on information sharing

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) signed a new agreement today, formalizing their plans to cooperatively promote and advance the sharing of aviation safety information and metrics worldwide.

The new, collaborative initiative supports ICAO Safety Management System (SMS) guidance that calls for increased monitoring, analysis and reporting of aviation safety results. It is one of several important, new agreements signed by ICAO since 2010, as it seeks to expand its cooperative activities.

“The establishment of this framework for enhanced cooperation with FSF is an important step in helping us achieve the highest levels of aviation safety worldwide,” commented Roberto Kobeh González, President of the ICAO Council. “Aviation safety knows no borders and these types of collaborative data sharing and risk mitigation efforts are essential to help States and industry address safety risks before they lead to a serious incident or accident.”

The ICAO-FSF Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) will see the two bodies working more closely to enhance global compliance with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and related guidance material. It promotes joint activities between the organizations in the areas of data sharing and analysis, training and technical assistance. The joint analyses developed will facilitate the harmonization of proactive and predictive safety metrics and the promotion of a just safety culture globally.

“Safety data sharing has already been successfully established in the United States through cooperative agreements between the FAA and U.S. carriers,” stressed William R. Voss, President and CEO of FSF. “We intend to leverage the lessons learned through this ground-breaking work to help other States establish models that are suited to their unique needs and constraints. ICAO’s mission and role makes it the perfect partner to help us take this to the global level.”

ICAO and FSF will shortly begin convening regular regional forums to share aggregated results on emerging safety issues and facilitate improved collaboration on targeted mitigation strategies. Both organizations are already consulting with a number of States on upcoming demonstration projects.