The Aviation Safety Council held its annual press conference on December 26, 2013.

The ASC Chairman Dr. Yu-Hern Chang stated in his welcome speech that the year 2013 is a special year for Taiwan aviation safety. According to the aviation safety statistics, from 2004 to 2013, Taiwan civil aviation transportation category airplanes not only maintained the zero fatal accident rate, the hull loss occurrence rate drop from 3.38 per million departures to 0.58 per million departures, which is lower than the global average of 0.82. The statistic indicates that national flight safety was a great leap forward in this year. In addition, there are 3 categories of the occurrence rates also continued to decrease in recent years.

Firstly is the Runway Excursion occurrence rate, this is also a major safety concern for the international aviation industry. With the safety recommendations issued by the ASC, the enhanced oversight by the Aviation Safety Authority, and efforts of all aviation industry, since October 2012, Taiwan had no Runway Excursion occurrence.

Secondly is the public aircraft occurrence rate: the ASC investigated public aircraft occurrence from 2000 to 2011. In total 9 cases, during the 12-year period, the average occurrence rate is 0.75 per year. Flight safety issue cannot be ignored and overlooked for search and rescue mission aircraft, the ASC had issued safety recommendations including recommend the organization to establish independent oversight and inspection system and revised related laws, procedures, flight crews specialized training and improvement in aviation equipment. Since June 2011 until now, public aircraft has no occurrence.

Thirdly is the ultra-light aircraft occurrence rate: the ASC investigated ultra-light aircraft occurrence from 2004 to 2011. A total of 11 occurrence, over the past 8 years period, the average occurrence rate is 1.4 per year. Those 11 occurrences flight activity are all illegal, and among them, five occurrences resulted eight fatalities. The ASC had issued safety recommendations that include to promote the related regulations, improvement of the flight field and airspace, and legalized requirements for all ultra light aircrafts and activity groups. Since October  2011, Taiwan has no ultra-light aircraft occurrence.

The reduction of the above 3 categories occurrence rate shows that the cooperation of investigative authority, oversight authorities, and airlines can effectively suppress and eliminate specific flight safety issues.

Despite our continuous improvement of the national flight safety, there is still much room for further efforts. The Chairman Chang also asks the  ASC ‘s technical group to organize different research teams to review the repeated occurrence causal factors, major safety concern, risk and human factors. The ASC technical group organized special research task forces and focus on occurrence prevention researches, such as runway excursion, airport safety devices installations, and safety management systems. Through those researches, wish to come up with some outcomes that may have significant contribution to flight safety. And those information will be shared with the industry through workshops or research papers.

Furthermore, starting in January of 2014, ASC will publish the 'Journal of Aviation Safety and Management' to highlight the importance of aviation safety and management issues. The ASC connected with knowledge of industry, government and academia to establish a both theory and practical environment for papers be published quarterly. The topics cover flight safety and management related issues, including occurrence investigation and analysis, Civil aviation law and systems, air transportation management, airport safety and management, and aviation technology and implement. Through the publication, ASC hopes to promote flight safety.

The enhancement of flight safety is a joint effort and need to work closely with every member of the civil aviation industry. Looking forward, the ASC expects that everyone can perceive the risk before happening, learn from others, eliminate the risk of the invisible, detect the defects through risk and hazardous identification, review every aspect with an open minded attitude to reduce risk and prevent occurrence. With that, we can continuous enhance and improve the flight safety and create a safer sky for everyone.

Contact: Engineer Sherry Liu
email:sherry@asc.gov.tw
Tel: 89127388-330