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2024-02-17

Are You Monitoring Seasonal Safety Performance Indicators (SPI)?

❄ In November 2023 a Eurowings Airbus A320 landed at Hamburg Airport. During the taxi to the gate, the aircraft slid off the icy taxiway and ended up in the grass.
❄ In March 2023 an airBaltic Airbus A220 suffered a runway excursion during a landing at Riga in heavy snowfall.
❄ In December 2022 a Ryanair Boeing 737 overran the runway while landing at Dortmund during snowfall.
❄ In January 2020 a Widerøe Dash-8 inadvertently entered an area of severe icing, which resulted in loss of engine power for some time.

With these examples as a stark reminder that operators’ risks and therefore the safety performance can change rapidly with season, it is imperative to regularly check and update the Safety Performance Indicators (SPI).

Here is a non-exhaustive list of what you could monitor for winter operations:
🔹 Number of unstabilized approaches per x landings.
🔹 Number of (Enhanced) Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) warnings per x take-offs.
🔹 Number of cases where flight preparation had to be done in less than the normally allocated time.
🔹 Number of incidents with de-icing vehicles per month/quarter/year & trends.
🔹 Pilots reports (PIREPS) regarding weather- or weather-related incidents per x take-offs.
🔹 Notified platform safety rules violations per x operations.
🔹 Number of dutytime exceedances or Commander’s extensions per x take-offs.