CANSO Global Safety Achievement Award 2022 shortlist announced

CANSO has announced the shortlisted candidates for the CANSO Global Safety Achievement Award 2022.

The award recognises those individuals, teams, or companies that have made a significant contribution to aviation safety in the past 12 months.

Six nominations have been shortlisted this year with two from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and one each from AZANS, EANA S.E., AEROTHAI, and Aeropath Ltd.

Osman Saafan, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH Director of Corporate Safety & Security/CSO and Civil-Military Affairs, and Chair of the CANSO Safety Standing Committee, said: "Last year saw the civil aviation industry return to almost pre-pandemic levels at a pace which caught, in some places, some aspects of flying's infrastructure out.

"However, I am prouder than ever to say that air traffic management safety remained as vigilant, professional and focussed as ever, as the increase in entries to our annual award scheme demonstrated, not just in number but also in quality.

"The shortlist below represents the best of the best of those entries, and should serve as a reminder that safety of aircraft, their passengers and crew will always be our priority, resolve, and the beneficiary of our expertise and creative thinking for as long as people fly."

The nominees are:

• Safety & Technical Training, Air Traffic Organization, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Safety and Technology –With its new ATAP technology, the Federal Aviation Administration made a significant, documented, safety contribution to reducing aviation risk in 2022. The Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) Taxiway Arrival Prediction (ATAP) is a unique surface surveillance tool in the USA's National Airspace System (NAS) that has a proven record of saving lives. ATAP makes flying safer for pilots and their passengers by alerting air traffic controllers when an aircraft has incorrectly aligned with a taxiway, rather than a runway, for landing.

• Azeraeronavigatsiya (AZANS) – Thanks to timely measures taken by AZANS, those flying from Europe to Asia were able to adapt to bypass routes and crisis circumstances in the region around Ukraine in a short time. Thus, AZANS has played an active role in ensuring a safe and reliable air corridor for Europe since the crisis started in February 2022. The growth of transit traffic in the airspace of Azerbaijan has averaged +134.1 per cent compared to the previous year, reaching +260 per cent in peak months.

• Safety Team, Empresa Argentina de Navegación Aérea (EANA) S.E – In 2020, EANA S.E. began implementing a project aimed at fostering Safety culture at all organisational levels. The project, implemented in stages, began with a webinar for EANA’s managers and chiefs. Then, the Safety course was redesigned to include internal procedures and Human Factors (HF) basic concepts. This course was mandatory to all EANA S.E. members. The last stage included selecting and training HF facilitators from across the country and range of disciplines to hold integrated workshops. Six workshops were held in 2022 with 104 attendants (from ATCOs, AIS, ATSEP, Safety and Search and rescue).

• UTM Implementation Team, AEROTHAI – In Bangkok, UVAs flying without permission have been a significant safety concern. The root cause is that obtaining permission to fly is complicated and time-consuming (mostly done via paper). The UTM Team implements OpenSky, a mobile app for electronic UAV flight authorisation to make flying UAV legally easy even for drone pilots without aviation backgrounds. To ensure practical implementation, the team has convinced 13 government and private organisations to authorise drone flights via OpenSky and set up a UTM Coordination Centre to help with safety critical tasks such as NOTAM issuance. 

• Aeropath Ltd, Airways International. – Flight Advisor is an interactive web-based mapping tool that improves situational awareness and enhances safety for pilots operating at low levels in uncontrolled airspace. Developed by Aeropath, New Zealand’s Aeronautical Information Service, in collaboration with its customer the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Flight Advisor is used by the military and is open to all civilian operators across New Zealand. Flight Advisor provides RNZAF pilots and civilian operators with an awareness of traffic and potential hazards when operating at low level.

• Acceptable Level of Risk Working Group,Air Traffic Organization, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – Worldwide, there is unprecedented growth of space operations and this has resulted in the United States needing a new response plan in the event of a space vehicle mishap. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization (FAA ATO) operational leadership formed a safety working group enacting Debris Response Areas (DRAs) in 2022. This award nomination recognises the working group that worked tirelessly to develop new procedures, issue orders, and train the relevant workforce increasing safety, efficiency, and overall situational awareness.