CIRCULAR MAS-01 - Belgium

KINGDOM OF BELGIUM FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT Belgian Civil Aviation Authority

CIRCULAR MAS-01

Date: 16/03/2016 Edition: 1 Subject: Reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation. Ref. :

- Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 - Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 - Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/1018 - Guidelines by the European Commission on application of the Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 The 1st edition comprises 12 pages dated 16/03/2016 The acting Director-general, Nathalie Dejace Important Notice: this document is a courtesy translation of Circular MAS-01 on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation. This is not a legal document and in no way does it replace the official bilingual Circular MAS-01 which can be found on the official website of the Belgian Civil Aviation Authorities:

Dutch: French:

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1. Aim

1.1. This circular is intended to comment on application of Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation. Under the terms of this Regulation, the aviation sector is required to inform the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority of occurrences in civil aviation so that the latter may: - disseminate the relevant information on these occurrences to international aeronautical authorities and to

the Belgian aviation sector, who may then draw the necessary conclusions; - carry out investigations on the critical safety occurrences so as to take the necessary measures to improve

air safety. 1.2. The aim of the occurrence reporting system in civil aviation is to use this information to maintain and improve the aviation safety level, and not to attribute blame or liability. 1.3. The main solicitude is to encourage the spontaneous reporting of occurrences. The objective is not to sanction involuntary violations of regulations brought to light after the occurrences are reported, except in cases of wilful misconduct or gross negligence. 1.4. Occurrence reporting and the use of occurrence information for the improvement of safety depend on a relationship of trust between the reporter and the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority who is in charge of the collection, storage and assessment of the information. 1.5. This circular covers reporting on all occurrence types. When an accident occurs, the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU(Be)) must also be immediately notified, in accordance with the CIR/ACCID-01. 1.6. Occurrence reporting is only for occurrences related to aviation safety. Problems regarding air passenger compensation and assistance in case of refused boarding and cancellation or major flight delays are not part of the reporting system. Complaints regarding potential violations to aviation regulations or noise pollution generated by aircraft are also not part of the occurrence reporting system. 1.7. You will find detailed information on application of the (EU) Regulation No 376/2014 in the guidance material from the European Commission, prepared with the support of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This document indicates the possible means of compliance and examples of good practice, so as to contribute to a coherent and appropriate implementation of the Regulation. The document may be consulted on the European reporting portal:

by clicking on the fields "Why Safety Reporting?" and "Guidance Material".

2. Definitions

1. Reporter: means a natural person who reports an occurrence or other safety-related information in accordance with this circular; 2. De-identified information: means information arising from occurrence reports from which all personal data such as names or addresses of natural persons have been removed; 3. Occurrence: means any safety-related event which endangers or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person and includes in particular an accident or serious incident; 4. Accident: means an accident within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010; 5. Serious incident: means a serious incident within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010; 6. Air navigation organisation: means any organisation providing aviation products and/or services in the aviation domain and/or which employs, contracts or uses the services of persons required to report occurrences in accordance with Article 4, paragraph 6, of the (EU) Regulation No 376/2014; 7. Hazard: means a situation or an object with the potential to cause death or injury to a person, damage to equipment or a structure, loss of material, or a reduction in ability to perform a prescribed function; 8. ECCAIRS: European Co-ordination Centre for Aviation Incident Reporting System; 9. ADREP: Accident/Incident Data Reporting system; 10. AAIU(Be): Air Accident Investigation Unit (Belgium); ? the independent unit for aircraft accident and incident investigation;

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3. Aviation Organisations

3.1. Mandatory occurrence reporting

3.1.1. The mandatory reporting of occurrences to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority applies to natural persons under Article 4 paragraph 6 of the (EU) Regulation No 376/2014. 3.1.2. These persons notify occurrences in the context of the system established by the following aviation organisations who employ, contract or use the services of the reporter:

- air carriers; - design companies; - manufacturing companies; - maintenance organisations; - air traffic management services; - airport operators; - ground handling companies; - flight schools (Aviation Training Organisations); - companies with flight simulators; - airo-medical centres. 3.1.3. Each aviation organisation shall designate a person who is responsible for notifying occurrences to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. 3.1.4. Each aviation organisation shall notify the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority of the collected information on the occurrences as soon as possible, and in any case within a period not exceeding 72 hours after becoming aware of the occurrence. 3.1.5. The European Commission (EC) has established, with the aid of the Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/1018, a list classifying the occurrences which should be referred to in the mandatory occurrence reporting under Article 4 paragraph 1 of the Regulation (EU) No 376/2014. This list has been included in Annex I to the present circular.

3.2. Voluntary occurrence reporting

3.2.1. A system of voluntary occurrence reporting is used to collect information on occurrences: - reported by persons who are not mentioned in Article 4 paragraph 6 of the Regulation (EU) No 376/2014; - which are not included in the list found in the Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/1018 classifying occurrences into categories, which must be referred to in case of mandatory occurrence reporting under Article 4 paragraph 1 of the (EU) Regulation No 376/2014.

3.2.2. Only the occurrences mentioned in paragraph 3.2.1 presenting a real or potential risk for safety, should be reported to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. This requires that the aviation organisation carries out an analysis to establish the risk of these occurrences for safety.

3.3. Exchange of information

3.3.1. In order to allow the exchange of information, mandatory and voluntarily occurrence reports are sent to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority using a format compatible with the ECCAIRS software and ADREP system. 3.3.2. The methods for reporting to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority are:

- the European reporting portal; - immediate reporting of data in E5X format via the SMS software of the aviation organisation. 3.3.3. The European reporting portal a. The reporting of occurrences via the European reporting portal is intended for small and medium-sized aviation organisations that produce few monthly reports. b. The mandatory and voluntary reporting of occurrences to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority is done via the European reporting portal at the following address:

and then click on the field "...on behalf of my organisation" and use the online or offline reporting form.

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3.3.4. Files in the E5X format a. The immediate notification of occurrences in E5X format via the SMS software of the aviation organisation is intended for those organisations that produce a large number of occurrence reports each month. For this purpose, the software uses the most recent version of the "Reduced Interface Taxonomy (RIT)". b. More information on the E5X file format and the RIT:

3.3.5 The reporting document intended for the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority for mandatory and voluntary occurrence notifications should contain all relevant data concerning the occurrence. These necessary relevant data can be found in Annex II of the present circular. 3.3.6. Mandatory data fields that apply to the occurrence, cannot be left empty. In those cases where the aviation organisation does not know the information to be provided, the value "Unknown" should be entered in the data field. For data fields not relevant to the occurrence, the value "Not applicable" should be filled in.

3.4. Investigation and follow-up to occurrences

3.4.1. The obligation to report occurrences does not in any way reduce the tasks and responsibilities of the aviation organisations. The main responsibility for safety remains with them. The aviation organisation determines the corrective or preventive measures necessary to improve air safety on the basis of analysis of aviation occurrences. 3.4.2. The aviation organisation carries out an analysis of the occurrence. The result of the risk classification of the occurrence via the risk classification system ("risk matrix") of the aviation organisation, determines if the occurrence involves a real or potential safety risk. 3.4.3. If the occurrence has been classified as a real or potential safety risk, the aviation organisation should send all corrective or preventive measures to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. The SMS procedures of the aviation organisation clearly indicate from which classification level the occurrence is considered a real or potential safety risk and thus the aviation organisation sends the possible corrective or preventive measures to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. 3.4.4. The aviation organisations report the provisional results of analyses and potential corrective/preventive measures to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority for all the reported notifications that involve a real or potential aviation safety risk. The reporting of provisional results is done within 30 days from the notification of the occurrence. 3.4.5. The aviation organisations report the final results of the analysis and possible corrective/preventive measures to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority regarding all the reported occurrences posing a real or potential aviation safety. Notification of final results is done as soon as they are available and, in principle, no later than three months from the date the occurrence was notified. 3.4.6. In order to exchange information, the provisional and/or final results of analyses and potential corrective/preventive measures are sent to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority using a format compatible with the ECCAIRS software and the ADREP system. 3.4.7. If the occurrence is reported via the European reporting portal using the online notification form, the reporter will receive an E5Y file. The follow-up to the occurrence can be done by uploading the E5Y file to the European reporting portal which can then be updated online. If the occurrence is reported via the European Reporting portal using the offline reporting form, the follow-up of the occurrence should be done by updating the initial PDF file and uploading this updated file to the European reporting portal. 3.4.8. All the reported occurrences are evaluated by the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. 3.4.9. The Belgian Civil Aviation Authority uses the information collected in the ECCAIRS database to identify the potential causes of safety problems and resolving them by optimising its regulatory and supervision activities. 3.4.10. The collected information (with protection of the anonymity) will be made available to the aviation authorities and organisations that wish to use it to improve the safety of civil aviation. 3.4.11. The information retrieved from the occurrence reports can only be used for maintaining or improving aviation safety. This information can under no circumstances be shared or used to attribute fault or blame (see chapter 6).

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4. Direct notification of occurrences to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority

4.1. Occurrences can be reported directly to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority by personnel occupied in an aviation organisation if the reporter does not trust the reporting system of his own organisation. The reports submitted via the reporting system of the aviation organisation are in any case considered as the normal way to proceed. 4.2. Direct reporting is in compliance with the objective of promoting a "just culture" under Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 and that, in particular aims at increasing the confidence of professional aviation staff in occurrence reporting systems, and which encourages them to report all information relevant to safety so as to contribute to the improvement of aviation safety and the prevention of accidents. 4.3. The direct reporting of occurrences to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority can be done via the European reporting portal at the following address:

and clicking on the field "...on my personal behalf" and using the online or offline reporting form. 4.4. Anonymous reporting of an occurrence to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority is possible. To allow the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority to obtain additional information on the occurrence reported or to make a follow-up of a report possible at a later date, it is recommended that the reporters indicate their contact details (name, telephone number, email address). The European reporting portal sends a copy in PDF-format of the report to reporters who provide their email address. 4.5. The Belgian Civil Aviation Authority guarantees the confidentiality of the occurrence reports sent.

5. Private pilots

5.1. The mandatory reporting to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority applies to physical persons in Article 4 paragraph 6 of the Regulation (EU) No 376/2014. Article 4 paragraph 6(a) refers to the pilot-in-command of an aircraft in commercial air transport as well as the pilot-in-command of aircraft used for private purposes (private pilots). 5.2. The reporting of occurrences is of vital importance for aviation safety and assists policy makers in defining safety priorities. Occurrence reporting by private pilots contributes directly to the improvement of aviation safety. 5.3. Private pilots report occurrences using the reporting system of the Member State which has issued, validated or converted the pilot's licence. Private pilots with a Belgian pilot's licence must therefore report occurrences directly to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority in accordance with the following paragraphs. 5.4. The European Commission (EC) has established, with the aid of the Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/1018, a list classifying occurrences which should be referred to in the mandatory reporting of occurrences under Article 4, paragraph 1 of the Regulation (EU) No 376/2014. This list has been included in Annex I to the present circular. The pilot-in-command of aircraft used for private purposes reports occurrences under Chapter V of the Annex I to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. 5.5. Every private pilot notifies the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority of the collected information on occurrences as soon as possible, and in any case within no more than 72 hours after becoming aware of the occurrence. 5.6. If desired, private pilots may report the occurrence to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority via the safety management system of the flight club or flight school where they are a member. 5.7. The obligation to report certain occurrences shall not prevent private pilots from reporting any other occurrence that they consider to be important for aviation safety. 5.8. The reporting of occurrences to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority is done via the European reporting portal to the following address:

and clicking on the field "...on my personal behalf" and using the online or offline reporting form. 5.9. Mandatory data fields that apply to the occurrence, cannot be left empty. In those cases where the pilot does not know the information to be provided, the value "Unknown" should be entered in the data field. For data fields not relevant to the occurrence, the value "Not applicable" should be filled in.

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