Progress on ICAO's Strategic Objectives — Safety — Safety Priorities
Safety Priorities
Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP)
ICAO completed a final draft version of the 2020-2022 edition of the Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP). This document houses ICAO’s Safety Strategy and presents goals and targets for States and industry to enhance safety to ultimately achieve zero fatalities in civil aviation. In 2018, the draft GASP was presented to the Thirteenth Air Navigation Conference (AN-Conf/13) for feedback ahead of the next Assembly. ICAO also issued a questionnaire, prior to the Conference, to obtain comments and suggestions for improving the document and ensuring its relevance for all stakeholders. The feedback received from the questionnaire expressed wide support for the draft GASP and its content. The Conference agreed to the draft GASP and recommended that certain topics be updated in the Plan. In December 2018, the GASP Study Group met and updated the GASP, taking into considerations the recommendations from the Conference and produced an updated 2020-2022 edition of the GASP for approval by the Council in 2019 and subsequent endorsement by the 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly.
Global Runway Safety Action Plan (GRSAP)
In October 2018, the ICAO-led Runway Safety Programme presented its Global Runway Safety Action Plan (GRSAP) to the AN-Conf/13 to inform participants that runway safety events, particularly runway excursions and runway incursions, remain among civil aviation’s top safety risk categories. The conference gave its full support to the GRSAP and urged runway safety stakeholders, including States, aircraft operators, air navigation service providers, aerodrome operators, aerospace industry and regional aviation safety groups, to implement the GRSAP actions to reduce the rate of runway excursions and runway incursions worldwide.
The GRSAP can be downloaded from ICAO’s public website at: Global Runway Safety Action Plan.
Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS)
On 8 November 2018, the first GADSS-related Standards became applicable. The Standards addressed normal aircraft tracking, or simply aircraft tracking. To facilitate the implementation, ICAO published a circular on Aircraft Tracking Implementation Guidelines (Cir 347) and the Manual on Location of Aircraft in Distress and Flight Recorder Data Recovery (Doc 10054). Additionally, and in line with the recommendations of the Normal Aircraft Tracking Implementation Initiative (NATII), ICAO created a public website that contained a map indicating regions where air operators should track their equipped aircraft in accordance with the aircraft tracking provisions of Annex 6 — Operation of Aircraft, Part I — International Commercial Air Transport — Aeroplanes. In the development of new aircraft tracking Standards, the NATII also identified a need to establish a means to facilitate communication and exchange of information between air operators and air navigation service providers (ANSPs). In this regard, the ICAO Operations Control Directory was launched to assist with the implementation of the aircraft tracking Standard. Participation in the directory is open and free for air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and operators that wish to exchange their operational control information. At the end of 2018, 40 ANSPs and 160 air operators had signed up.
Duplicated waypoints
The existence of 3 905 duplicated waypoints worldwide has been identified as a significant safety issue and addressing duplicated five-letter name codes (5LNCs) that are in close proximity to each other has been given high priority. Training on how to approach the issue was provided to the regional offices who will share guidance with States.
Transport of dangerous goods — Lithium batteries
The 2019-2020 Edition of the Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (Doc 9284) was approved and published by decision of the Council. It contains new measures to mitigate risks associated with the carriage of lithium batteries, including requirements for:
- lithium batteries to be segregated from other flammable dangerous goods; and
- baggage powered by lithium batteries, or the batteries if they can be separated from the baggage, to be carried in the cabin.
Work on an overarching strategy to mitigate risks associated with the carriage of lithium batteries by air continued. This included the development of a performance-based package standard by an SAE committee (established at the request of ICAO), provisions and guidance material for operators to conduct safety risk assessments on the carriage of cargo, and improved hazard communication.
