A safe flight to a new world
Despite circumstances requiring a significant ability to adapt, not only to the rapid recovery in air traffic but also to the impacts on European traffic flows of the closure of Ukrainian airspace, the level of safety provided by skeyes to air traffic reached new peaks once again in 2022. Safety is the absolute top priority for skeyes and the foundation of its corporate culture. It is constantly being analysed and improved. Airspace and its management are undergoing a profound transformation towards a new world where safety will remain the priority.
category A incident
category B incident
categories A and B incident per million movements
category A incident per million movements
Reporting of safety-related occurrences
skeyes’ safety culture, which has always guided its actions in the management of safety-related occurrences is based on the search for causes in order to gain a thorough understanding and take appropriate measures so that a similar event does not occur again.
After analysis, some reported events are downgraded and are not qualified as a safety-related occurrence.
While the absolute number of safety-related occurrences also depends on traffic volume, the number of reports per 100,000 movements offers a more accurate indication of the progress of the safety culture and systematic reporting.
In 2022, the exceptional increase in traffic - +35% - was higher than the rate of increase in reports (+23%). The number of occurrence reports per 100,000 movements is therefore down 5% compared to 2021.
In over ten years, the number of occurrence reports has increased significantly overall. This does not mean that there are more occurrences than before, but rather that they are increasingly systematically reported in order to be analysed and to be able to draw useful lessons from them for improving safety.
The 62% jump between 2015 and 2016 is also due to European regulation 376/2014 introduced at the end of 2015, which expanded the types of occurrences to be reported.
The absolute number of safety-related occurrences is not the only measure of the safety culture.
The content of reports and the fact that reporting an occurrence has become a well-established reflex are important criteria for assessing the extent to which the safety culture has taken root.
occurrence reports in 2022
compared to 2021
the number of safety-related occurrences identified in 2022 after analysis
compared to 2021
occurrence reports per 100,000 movements
compared to 2021
skeyes’ responsibility
skeyes bore no responsibility in the vast majority of safety-related occurrences. In 2022, the involvement of skeyes was only established for 89 occurrences, which represents 5.6% of the total number of occurrences reported in 2022 (same in 2021, 4.4% in 2020 and 6.3% in 2019).
Regarding the severity of these 89 occurrences, 71 were category E and were therefore considered as having no impact on the level of safety. 17 were category C (significant), 1 category B (major) and 0 category A (severe).
involvement of skeyes in safety-related occurrences
The most frequently-reported occurrences
In the top three places in the ranking of the most reported occurrences, two places are occupied by occurrences completely unrelated to the mission of skeyes, but the reporting of which is required by European legislation: interference with wildlife tops the list, ahead of technical problems on aircraft reported by pilots, in third place.
2022 was marked by a significant increase (+62%) in airspace infringements by general aviation pilots and pilots of military or state aircraft (172 occurrences compared to 110 in 2021, 42 in 2020 and 91 in 2019). These occurrences occupy second place in the overall ranking.
In fourth position, there was a 7% increase in occurrences relating to the blinding of pilots using laser pointers compared to 2021 (95 occurrences compared to 89 in 2021, 56 in 2020 and 79 in 2019). A resurgence of this worrying phenomenon after a significant decrease (this type of occurrence occupied first place from 2010 to 2015 with more than 200 occurrences reported per year) attributable to the coordinated efforts of skeyes and airport and judicial authorities.
Deviations from ATM procedures and deviations from ATC clearances rank in fifth and sixth place respectively, after an increase in 2022. Thanks to continuous improvement of the safety culture, new local issues are reported and addressed. Deviations from ATM procedures increased by 26%, with 82 occurrences compared to 65 in 2021. Deviations from ATC clearances increased by 34%, with 78 occurrences compared to 58 in 2021.
Regarding non-compliance with minimum separations between aircraft, there was an increase in 2022 (38 occurrences) compared to 2021 (24 occurrences). Nevertheless, this type of occurrence, generally linked to traffic density, has decreased somewhat since 44 such occurrences were recorded in 2019. The involvement of skeyes was confirmed for 28 of these occurrences (i.e. 74%) in 2022, for 21 in 2021 (88%), for 7 in 2020 (70%) and for 35 of them in 2019 (80%).
Runway incursions are another type of occurrence that directly concerns skeyes’ safety performance. In 2022, 42 runway incursions were reported, compared to 33 the previous year, 27 in 2020 and 26 in 2019. However, there was a decrease in the involvement of skeyes, confirmed for 9 of these incursions (i.e. 21% of them) compared to 24% in 2021, 22% in 2020 and 27% in 2019.
Finally, occurrences related to drone flights in unauthorised areas were the subject of 24 occurrence reports, all submitted by pilots, mainly in the CTRs of the airports of Brussels and Antwerp.
