Risk assessment of bird strikes to UK aviation. A study for the UK Civil Aviation Authority
Objective:
The overall objective of the study was to analyse the risk from bird strikes to UK aviation, in order to provide a better-informed basis for decisions about management of this risk.
A secondary aim was to consider how effective a recent change in mandatory reporting requirements had been in improving the completeness and accuracy of the incident data available to the safety regulator.
Added value to client:
RM Consultants Ltd (RMC) has a distinguished track record in risk assessment, and is highly skilled in safety research, aviation safety and statistical analysis. RMC’s experience was combined with that of specialist bird-strike ornithologists from Central Science Laboratory.
Activities:
The study consisted of two main strands:
- A quantitative analysis of the bird strike incident data that had been collected by the CAA over many years;
- A qualitative review of operators’ reporting processes based on structured interviews with a sample of airline and airport staff.
By combining the findings of the quantitative analysis and the qualitative review, RMC was able to:
- Assess the completeness of the data before and after the change in reporting requirements. This provided useful information on reporting rates and biases that could be informative in future studies of risks from bird strike and other types of incident.
- Define tolerability criteria for bird strike risk, and hence assess the need for additional risk control measures.
Evaluate the effectiveness of mandatory bird strike reporting, the usability of forms and the robustness of reporting and data analysis processes. - Identify potential improvements to the management of bird strike risk and to reporting forms and procedures.
