INFOSCAN The Wiki Way to Aviation Safety Knowledge Skybrary, a new initiative of Eurocontrol and ICAO, tracks the cumulative knowledge of the industry. WEB SITES categories: air-ground communications, Skybrary, <www.skybrary.aero> airspace infringement, nformation accessibility and use often lag behind bird strikes, controlled information accumulation. It isn’t enough just flight into terrain, fire, Ifor information to be “out there somewhere”; to ground operations, be put into practice, there must be a relatively easy, human factors, level fast and economical way to obtain it. busts, loss of control, With that goal in mind, Eurocontrol, the Eu- loss of separation, ropean organization for air navigation safety, has runway excursions, launched a Web site called Skybrary, a reposi- runway incursions, tory of aviation safety knowledge accessible via wake turbulence, the Internet. weather, and general. The Web site describes Skybrary as “the single There are two additional portals. The En- point of reference in the network of aviation hancing Safety portal contains six categories: air- safety knowledge” and says, “Skybrary is an initia- worthiness, flight technical, safety management, tive of Eurocontrol and ICAO [International Civil safety nets, theory of flight and general. The Aviation Organization] with the sole purpose of third portal is Safety Regulations: certification, safety knowledge exchange.” Flight Safety Foun- ESARRS (Eurocontrol Safety Regulatory Require- dation has partnered with Eurocontrol and ICAO ments), licensing, regulation, and general. in sharing information and providing content for Clicking on a category such as controlled the Skybrary knowledge base. flight into terrain reveals a description of the The initiative’s goal is to capture authorita- term and an index of related topics. Topic tive aviation industry information and create and subtopic articles tend to follow a pattern cumulative knowledge — to populate, organize, of descriptions, effects, defenses, scenarios, refine and deliver a knowledge base with static contributing factors, and solutions. Most articles and changing information that will influence contain embedded links to additional infor- and shape behaviors of aviation professionals, mation and lists of related readings, including especially with regard to critical safety issues. Eurocontrol’s Hindsight magazine. The Web site opens at the Operational Issues Knowledge elements in articles link to portal, where the user can select from 15 issue dynamic interactive modules such as media tool WWW.FLIGHTSAFETY.ORG | AEROSAFETYWORLD | JULY 2008 | 53 INFOSCAN kits, safety alerts, ICAO and Eurocontrol docu- Virtual Flight Surgeons, ments, manuals, accident and incident reports, <www.aviationmedicine.com> and other materials. Readers may view material he Web site for Virtual Flight Surgeons (VFS) from the Skybrary site online or print it at no says it “is designed as a free Internet resource cost. Documents appearing on linked Web sites Tfor pilots, controllers and AMEs [aviation may have other limitations or options. medical examiners] to bookmark as a single com- Skybrary uses the “wiki” format instead of prehensive reference for aeromedical certifica- Skybrary invites the traditional Web site format. A wiki — whose tion information and links to widely recognized readers to register most famous example is Wikipedia — can be authorities in medicine, aerospace medicine and added to or edited by users, so that the informa- the FAA [U.S. Federal Aviation Administration].” and participate in tion theoretically represents the collective wis- The information resources section contains dom of the user group rather than an individual VFS medical articles on numerous aspects of discussions about or team. In the case of Skybrary, contributors aerospace physiology, nutrition, crew duty articles. and editors must be invited to participate in issues, fitness and health, and medical condi- article development. Readers can follow the tions. Articles in a searchable database can be development of current and draft articles, such read online or printed, and follow a standard as authorship and subsequent changes in text. format. For example, the article on skin cancer Skybrary invites readers to register and partici- and melanoma informs pilots and controllers pate in discussions about articles. on identification, treatment, risk factors, FAA The menu page for each category includes policy and related topics. a “tool box.” One item under the tool box is The Web site says it provides “an updated list “special pages,” with an extensive list of subcat- of medications the FAA commonly authorizes egories. The subcategories include items such as for use during flight and aviation duties, plus “articles with the most revisions,” “articles with restrictions on medication use and those medi- the fewest revisions,” “most linked-to catego- cations the FAA does not normally approve for ries,” “most linked-to images,” “new pages” and use.” Readers can quickly determine FAA usage “my watchlist.” policy by searching on medication names. There are three ways to search: browse by category, use the search engine — similar to the familiar Google search engine — and check the graphic wiki “mind map.” The mind map illustrates topical relationships within major cat- egories. For example, entering “TAWS” — ter- rain awareness and warning system — indicates that TAWS is related to topics such as “aircraft equipment,” “controlled flight into terrain,” “warning provided by TAWS” and “response to a TAWS alert.” Some of these related subjects can be clicked to provide their own mind maps. There are extensive lists of Internet links With permission from ICAO, the site under headings such as government aviation includes a dedicated search engine for ICAO agencies; accident investigation and safety; aero- documents. At press time, key-searchable docu- medical standards and regulations; air traffic ments include ICAO Annexes 2, 10 and 11, and control and security; and aeromedical libraries, Documents 4444, Procedures for Air Navigation programs and societies. Services, Air Traffic Management, and 8168, The VFS news section contains four years Procedures for Air Navigation Services, Aircraft of the Quarterly Aeromedical Newsletter and a Operations. short bibliography of aviation safety medical 54 | FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION | AEROSAFETYWORLD | JULY 2008 INFOSCAN articles. Newsletters and select articles are free to itself unable to recruit the right mix of read online, print or download. skills when it needs them; [and,] REPORTS • “The department has not developed short- 2008 May Report of the Auditor General and medium-term performance indicators — those that could signal a need for closer of Canada: Chapter 3 — Oversight of Air 2008 Report of the attention or action in a particular area — Auditor General Transportation Safety — Transport Canada of Canada to measure the impact of its civil aviation to the House of Commons MAY Chapter 3 May 6, 2008. 17 pp. Available via the Internet at <www.oag-bvg. Oversight of Air Transportation Safety— Transport Canada gc.ca/internet/English/aud_ch_oag_200805_03_e_30699.html>. activities.” he report focuses on Transport Canada’s The auditor general’s recommendations includ- transition to oversight based on safety man- ed the following: Tagement systems (SMSs), which will require Office of the Auditor General of Canada operators to have in place a system for managing • “Transport Canada should establish a stan- safety risks, rather than one based solely on con- dard that defines an acceptable level of activ- ducting inspections. The auditor general found: ity for oversight of the aviation industry, and it should specify how this will be measured • “As the first civil aviation authority to put during the transition to SMS and when in place regulations requiring aviation the transition is complete. The department companies to introduce SMS, Transport should analyze the data to assess the extent Canada developed its own approach. For to which the standard is achieved; example, it conducted pilot projects with airlines and small operators and used • “Transport Canada should establish a the results to establish milestones. It also national mechanism to provide the desired monitored activities and made adjust- level of assurance that policies, procedures ments to ensure that all regions applied and processes for civil aviation oversight procedures consistently. However, in plan- activities, including the assessment of risks, ning for the transition, the department did are followed consistently across all regions; not document risks, such as the impact of • “Transport Canada should put in place a the transition process on oversight of air national human resources plan for civil avia- transportation safety, and identify actions tion as soon as possible. This plan should be to mitigate these risks. Nor did it forecast aligned with the strategic plan, specify the the overall costs of managing the change; required number of inspectors and engi- neers and their competencies, and include a • “Resources have been shifted from tradi- recruitment strategy to meet these needs; tional oversight activities to SMS activities. However, the Department has not mea- • “Transport Canada should develop a sured the impact of this on the frequency training strategy that is aligned with the of traditional oversight activities; human resources plan to be developed for civil aviation. The strategy should address • “Transport Canada