The Transportation Safety Board has launched a “Watchlist” and Calls For Action for nine critical safety issues troubling Canada’s Transportation System.
Of these nine, five are aviation related, they are:
PROBLEM
There is ongoing risk that aircraft may collide with vehicles or other aircraft on the ground at Canadian airports.
SOLUTION
Improved procedures and the adoption of enhanced collision warning systems are required at Canada’s airports.
PROBLEM
Fatalities continue to occur when planes collide with land and water while under crew control.
SOLUTION
Wider use of technology is needed to help pilots assess their proximity to terrain.
PROBLEM
Landing accidents and runway overruns continue to occur at Canadian airports.
SOLUTION
In bad weather, pilots need to receive timely information about runway surface conditions.
Airports need to lengthen the safety areas at the end of runways or install other engineered systems and structures to safely stop planes that overrun.
PROBLEM
Implemented properly, safety management systems (SMS) allow transportation companies to identify hazards, manage risks, and develop and follow effective safety processes.
However, TC does not always provide effective oversight of transportation companies transitioning to SMS, while some companies are not even required to have one.
SOLUTION
The integration of SMS practices into day‑to‑day operations must be closely monitored by TC to ensure that industry, as a whole, makes a smooth transition to an SMS environment.
PROBLEM
Data critical to understanding how and why transportation accidents happen are frequently lost, damaged or not required to be collected.
SOLUTION
Global efforts are required to build better recorders, to enhance the quality and duration of their recordings, and to ensure they keep recording when the power supply fails.
I think this is a great step by the TSB to get other agencies (like Transport Canada) to make the changes that are necessary to eliminate these common problems.
