Page 28 - InterPilot 2019 Issue 3

PAGE 29

A quarterly recap of the Federation’s activities at
the International Civil Aviation Organization

IFALPA BY CAROLE COUCHMAN, MBE

IFALPA Senior Technical & Regional Officer

@ICAO This report covers the period from May to the end of There were further discussions and work on the

July 2019. In addition to the meetings reported here, Space-based ADS-B manual particularly related to
uncleared weather deviations and uncleared contin-
there were several Panel Working Group meetings
gency diversions. Presentations concerning high alti-
held around the globe.
tude balloon operations, commercial space launches,
ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION PANEL (AIGP)
flight level 600 were also included.
Since its promulgation some sixty years ago, Annex and recovery operations, as well as operations above
13 — Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation
has been primarily progressed through the work of AERODROME OPERATIONS WORKING GROUP
AIG Divisional Meetings. Recent developments have (AOWG)
required that accident and incident investigation The third meeting of the Aerodrome Operations
techniques and procedures progress more efficiently Working Group was held in Montreal, 6-9 May 2019.
and expeditiously. The establishment of the AIGP This group is tasked with developing and updating
has enabled timely and cost-effective advancement PANS-Aerodromes. IFALPA was represented by Cap-
of provisions for investigations called for in Annex tain Sven Grassmueck, Vice-Chair of the Aerodrome
13 to the Convention. and Ground Environment (AGE) Committee. The
principal topic of the meeting was a review of up-
The meeting in May progressed new amendments date guidance material on wildlife hazard manage-
for Annex 13 as well as discussions relating to the ment as developed by the Wildlife Hazard Mitigation
Accident/Incident Data Reporting (ADREP) and how Expert Group.
to standardise those reports, as well as the timely
release of information after an accident. In addition, AVIATION SECURITY PANEL (AVSECP)
there were discussions relating to cyber security and Captain Jeroen Kruse, Chairperson of the Security
resilience. IFALPA was represented by the Chairper- Committee represented IFALPA at the 30th meet-
son of the Accident Analysis and Prevention (AAP) ing of the AVSEC Panel. During the meeting the
Committee, Captain Ariel Shocrón. Panel elected a new Chairperson, Sonia Hifdi. One
of the main issues discussed at this meeting was the
SEPARATION AND AIRSPACE SAFETY PANEL WORK- “insider threat” and new standards were proposed
ING GROUP (SASP-WG) for Annex 17 for screening of staff and background
The two-week meeting was attended by a pilot rep checks. A new taskforce will be set up to design a
from the IFALPA Air Traffic Services (ATS) Commit- reporting tool for safety and security occurrences.
tee, Captain Felix Gottwald, and the Senior Technical There were discussions on the residual risk of an
Officer for ATS, Carole Couchman. There were many attack on aviation by RPAS and the assessment was
topics for discussion including extending Strategic raised to medium.
Lateral Offset Procedures (SLOP). At present, SLOP
should be applied as a standard operating proce- WAKE TURBULENCE WORKING GROUP (WTWG)
dure in all airspace where approved and applied The Wake Turbulence Working Group met in May
from the time the aircraft reaches cruising level until and IFALPA was represented by the ATS Vice-Chair,
top of descent. The Panel is looking into allowing Captain Stefan Fiedler. There was considerable dis-
SLOP during climb and descent, acknowledging the cussion on en-route wake vortex separation values.
ambiguity of when to start and stop SLOP. The WG have suggested the best way forward is to