Banjul accord group, EASA partner on aviation safety

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has expressed readiness to share the tenets of the European Co-ordination Centre for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS) with the Banjul Accord Group Accident Investigation Agency (BAGAIA), once the modalities are finalised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

This agreement was made known at the European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities (ENCASIA) Plenary at Brussels, Belgium, where the trio of BAGAIA Commissioner, Charles Erhueh, AIB-Nigeria Commissioner, Akin Olateru, and their counterpart from Ghana, Prempeh Agyeibi, were in attendance.

EASA Senior International Cooperation Officer, Yves Koning, who responded to the special requests by BAGAIA delegation, said consultations with ICAO on the modalities to implement ECCAIRS in other regions outside Europe were ongoing.

Koning, in appreciating the requests said, “Yes it is already being implemented in Europe, but they are finalising with ICAO on the modalities to implement it outside Europe. Once that is done it will now be extended to train the trainers.”

ECCAIRS is a cooperative network of civil aviation authorities and safety investigation authorities in Europe. It is a project being managed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (DG JRC) on request of the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) and in close co-operation with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The ECCAIRS mission is to aid national and European transport entities in the collection, sharing and analysing safety information in order to improve public transport safety. However, ENCASIA currently has 27 member states.

BAGAIA, under the EU-ASA project, presented the request for peer reviews of processes in the regions where EU experts will do due diligence and provide reports afterwards.

Also BAGAIA requested for human capacity development and the ECCAIRS training of the new version. The benefit of ECCAIRS is to complement the internal reporting system for the exchanges of safety data, such as collecting, sharing and allowing analysis of safety data that enhances air transport safety.