ICAO to lead safety information exchange

ICAO will coordinate efforts to establish a global safety information exchange to enable analysis of key safety indicators.

Working closely with IATA and the FAA, ICAO will "facilitate the collection, analysis and dissemination of safety information provided by states and industry partners throughout the international aviation community".

In coming months, the partners in the concept will establish an operational framework for the information exchange, by addressing technical, confidentiality, legal and policy implications, as well as the relevance and timing of information collected.

This was the major outcome of last week's High-Level Safety Conference in Montreal which also dealt with issues such as enhanced black box capabilities.

ICAO was also urged to "develop processes to give the general public access to relevant safety information, thereby allowing them to make an informed decision about the safety of air transportation and to further ensure that such information is used solely to improve aviation safety and not for retribution or the purpose of gaining economic advantage".

ICAO President Roberto Kobeh González said after the event that, “We have traditionally focused our efforts on accident reports as a means to improve safety. This new approach will help us to better identify and deal with safety threats before they result in accidents.”

With regard to black boxes, the Conference recommended that ICAO look into technical enhancements that would improve the ability to locate and recover the units, such as longer time periods for signals, better resistance to crashes and floatability.