ICAO Has Imposed A November, 2010 Deadline For A Safety
Management System
The European Business Aviation
Association (EBAA) Monday announced a new initiative to develop and
deliver an Emergency Response Planning manual for business aircraft
owners and operators based in Europe.
Scheduled to be available in December 2009 for use by EBAA
members and all interested operators, the ERP manual will provide
general guidance and procedures allowing Business Aviation
Operators to develop their own Emergency Response Plan. Key
subjects to be incorporated into the manual include: Media
Response/Handling, Flight Operations, Engineering &
Maintenance, Security, Finance, and Legal/Risk
Management/Insurance.
“This is truly a collaborative industry effort that
reflects our collective concern regarding the overall preparedness
of business aircraft operators to deal effectively with an
emergency situation,” stated Brian Humphries, President &
CEO, EBAA. “For a variety of reasons, numerous operators
neither current possess an ERP -- nor have the expertise to create
an ERP – so our initiative is aimed at correcting this
situation.”
EBAA expects to publish the ERP
Manual almost a year before the November 2010 mandatory
implementation deadline set by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) for operators to establish a Safety Management
System (SMS). “ERP plans are an essential element of every
SMS program,” noted Mr. Humphries, “so the EBAA ERP
manual will assist operators with meeting this regulatory
requirement, while also raising the overall professionalism of
their organizations.”
The ERP Manual is being produced by EBAA Member Gates Aviation
LLP, together with Members of an ERP Steering Group comprising
subject matter experts from: EBAA Executive, Gates and Partners
LLP, Bombardier Aerospace, Flight Safety International, British
Helicopter Association, ExecuJet Aviation Group, International
Business Aviation Council (IBAC), Tyrolean Jet Services and
Dassault Aviation.
In order to ensure that the ERP Manual includes comprehensive,
practical and easy-to-use guidance material, EBAA also recently
launched a digital survey to determine which key ERP issues concern
Business Aviation Operators most, and to identify emergency
response knowledge gaps and key vulnerabilities.
All Business Aviation Operators are invited to complete the
survey, which can be accessed on the homepage of the EBAA website.
Those who complete the survey will receive a copy of the results in
order to help them benchmark their activities against others in the
sector. Participants will also be among the first to be notified
when the toolkit has been fully developed.
“The response rate to the survey is encouraging, and it
appears as though business aviation operators are keen to provide
valuable information that we need in order to develop a relevant
and useful manual,” stated Mr. Humphries. “Their timely
feedback, combined with the considerable knowledge and expertise
provided by our steering committee should result in a superior ERP
tool for business aviation operators across Europe.”