Security incidents Root Cause Analysis

Safety and Security in aviation are areas widely regulated by international and national organizations. The most appreciated concern is related to reducing as much as possible the risk for the people and critical facilities as a consequence of aviation operations incidents and from application of the AVSEC security regulations.

An aviation incident is an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft which affects or could affect the safety of operation. Incidents related to compliance of AVSEC regulations may also affect safety.

Voluntary and mandatory reporting systems should allow individuals to report details of aviation safety-related occurrences. Aviation organizations should analyse those occurrences that could have an impact on safety. The competent authorities should put in place a similar procedure for those occurrences that have been directly submitted to them and should adequately monitor the organisation's assessment and any corrective or preventive action taken.

Under Regulation 139/2014, laying down requirements and administrative procedures related to aerodromes, requirements establish that (ADR.OR.C.020, 030 and ADR.AR.C.010).

The aerodrome operator should establish procedures to be used for reporting to the Competent Authority, which include:

• reporting procedures and mechanisms, and
• description of mechanism and personnel responsibilities for identifying root causes, and the actions that may be needed to be taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future, as appropriate.

After receipt of notification of findings by the competent authority, the aerodrome operator shall:

• identify the root cause of the non-compliance;
• define a corrective action plan.

From the competent authority side, “Aerodrome inspectors should analyse and assess the root cause(s) identified by the aerodrome operator, and be satisfied that the corrective actions taken are adequate to correct the non- compliance, and to prevent reoccurrence”, so “Part of an audit should concentrate on the aerodrome operator’s compliance monitoring reports to determine if the aerodrome operator is identifying the root causes and correcting its problems”.

Compliance of AVSEC regulation has multiple lacks, given the multiplicity of agents involved in the application of security controls (airport managers, security companies, airlines, accredited agents, known shippers, suppliers of supplies, suppliers of provisions, suppliers of air navigation services, FFCCS, etc.) and of the human factors and new and advanced technologies involved.

Although the AVSEC supervision scheme is therefore well described by the regulations and is mature after so many years of application, the result of such supervision yields a somewhat surprising deviation or “incidents” related to regulation compliance.

This set of requirements and situations leads us to the need of designing and developing additional mechanisms to increase the level of safety and security and reduce the deficiencies observed in Safety and AVSEC oversight.

Among these mechanisms, root cause analysis methodologies should be implemented, so that not only immediate and first correction of deficiencies is conducted, but also understanding the root causes is essential to act on them and therefore on all their consequences, to avoid repetition.

Objectives

• The main objective of the course is to provide the participants with the necessary skills (training, guides, tools, etc.) for the effective investigation of incidents and of deviations from compliance with the applicable regulations, finally determining their causes.
• The course will provide a practical knowledge of the methods of Root Cause Analysis and will facilitate the understanding of the fundamental processes for solving problems and conducting an effective investigation.
• Participants will learn to conduct an investigation (using, for example: role play, questions and answers, brainstorming, debate, reporting ...), and obtain the relevant conclusions, in the form of corrective actions and / or recommendations.

Contents

• Module 1: Introduction and definitions
• Module 2: An approach to the RCA process. The investigation process
• Module 3: Practical guide to conduct an RCA
• Module 4: RCA practice

Aimed to

• Staff and policy makers of local, metropolitan and regional administrations with an airport in their territory or in their vicinity.

Technical Requeriments

• WIRED CONNECTION preferably to avoid connection failures.
• MANDATORY webcam and headphones connected throughout the course (not use pc speaker to avoid acustic coupling)

Further Information

The course has been developed by Francisco Moreno, Aeronautical Engineer by the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid; senior EASA aviation consultant and instructor, he is an specialist in Safety Management Systems. As the Director of Ommeron Aeronáutica, he manages the Ommeron Academy training programme, being as well an accredited instructor and evaluator within the ICAO Safety Management for Practitioners training programme.

TIMETABLE: 15:00-19:00