IS-BAO SAFA Survey
The EU Ramp Inspection Programme utilized by EASA and 48 Participating States (i.e., all EU Member States but also non-EU States such as Canada, Turkey, the UAE, Singapore, etc.) is very different from previous years.
The need to focus resources led to the amendment of the computer algorithm which assesses risk of the aircraft entering Participating States and decides which aircraft will be flagged for inspection, or not, before it lands. From now on, infrequent visitors will potentially be inspected on each visit to Participating States while regular visitors may not be inspected as often as before. While the algorithm is obviously proprietary, and the actual performance of an inspection depends on several factors (e.g., availability of state resources, destination airport, etc.), consideration for inspection may also factor in IS-BAO Stage 2 and 3 registration.
Coordination between the French DSAC and IBAC to establish formal two-way communication regarding Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) improvements began in 2017. The intent is twofold: to learn where business aviation could do better during SAFA inspections, and also to assist States in better prioritization of which aircraft to inspect based on the IS-BAO Stage achieved by the operator. Both the centralized SAFA database and the algorithm use the aircraft registration as primary identifier, but currently lack a reliable way to link an aircraft with the appropriate operator. In the absence of this link, IBAC is coordinating this survey for IS-BAO registered operators to voluntarily list their aircraft registration numbers to update the French DSAC database.
IS-BAO registered operators please input your aircraft for consideration here:
SAFA Survey
There is no guarantee that an IS-BAO operator will not undergo a SAFA inspection and operators should always be prepared for one. The intent of this coordinated effort is to continue improving the safety performance of our industry and to lower the frequency of inspections for IS-BAO operators that have proactively mitigated operational risk. The efforts with France are meant to pave the way and be expanded to all Participating States.
Bennet Walsh, IS-BAO Programme Director
bwalsh@ibac.org
+1-850-525-9990 US PST