Example projects of air safety data analysis

Statistical summaries
The NLR-ATSI Air Safety Database is well suited to generate statistical summaries on air transport safety. Such summaries are important to the aviation industry and authorities to set their priorities regarding safety improvements and to observe general trends in air transport safety. Statistical summaries are generated for number of clients. For instance the NLR-ATSI Air Safety Database is used to determine statistics for the Dutch Transport and Water Management Inspectorate (see Civil aviation safety data 1989-2003).

Evacuation slides
Cabin safety is an important aspect of flight safety. One concern related to cabin safety is that aircraft can be evacuated quickly and safely in case of an emergency. Aircraft that have emergency exits more than 6 feet from the ground are required to have an approved means to assist the occupants in descending to the ground. For this purpose emergency evacuation slides are used. Problems can occur with the use of emergency evacuation slides. An analysis of the problems when using evacuation slides was conducted for the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) Cabin Safety Study Group. The NLR-ATSI Air Safety Database played a vital role in this study in providing the necessary data. The study gave the JAA Cabin Safety Study Group clear and useful results regarding the problems with evacuation slides. (see Problems with Evacuation slides).

Air-to-ground communication problems
Within the EUROCONTROL Safety Improvement Sub-Group (SISG) “Communication Safety” has been proposed as a potential subject for a safety improvement initiative. A first step in reducing the incidence of communication problems is to understand why and how they happen. In the past, a number of studies have been conducted on the subject of pilot-controller communication errors. The majority of these studies were based on data obtained from incident reporting systems in the United States of America. Therefore, the results of these studies could not reflect the situation in Europe. To overcome this limitation, the NLR-ATSI Air Safety Database was used in a study to identify the more current communication problems in European airspace. The study revealed the key problems areas in air-to-ground communication and was used to conduct a more in-depth analysis into these problems. For this last study a special reporting campaign amongst airlines and air service navigation providers was conducted. (see Pilot-Controller Air-Ground communication safety study 2X)

Landing overruns
Landing overruns belong to the group of most frequently reported accident types in the world. It is therefore interesting to get an overview of factors that increase the landing overrun risk, the trends in statistics and in the effect of safety initiatives. A safety study on landing overruns of commercial transport aircraft was conducted addressing the aforementioned issues. The NLR-ATSI Air Safety Database was the key data provider for this study. The study identified and quantified the factors that increase the landing overrun risks. Furthermore, it showed the overall trend in the landing overrun risk since 1970.

Runway incursions
Runway safety is a vital component of air transport safety. The predicted growth in air traffic implies that the actual numbers of runway incursion incidents may rise, unless held in check by preventative actions such as those recommended in the European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Incursions. NLR-ATSI was contracted by Eurocontrol to analyse the runway incursion risk in Europe. The NLR-ATSI Air Safety Database was used in this study, which identified the primary causal factors that lead to runway incursions.