CASE STUDY

EAD Safety Assessments

BACKGROUND

The European AIS Database (EAD) is the world’s largest Aeronautical Information System (AIS): a centralised reference database of quality-assured aeronautical information and, simultaneously, a fully integrated, state-of-the-art AIS solution.

Since 2004, Ebeni has undertaken the safety assessments and developed the Safety Case for EAD on behalf of EUROCONTROL. This ongoing work comprises multiple releases of EAD, including significant patchsets and regular updates of the EAD infrastructure hardware and software.

THE CHALLENGE

In December 2016, EAD was certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as an Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) in respect of the provision of AIS, against Single European Skies (SES) regulations in relation to aeronautical data quality (ADQ). The EAD safety documentation is regularly subject to scrutiny by EASA as part of its safety oversight role, with responses to EASA comments on the safety documentation needed to avoid compromising EAD release timescales.

OUR SOLUTION

The Ebeni safety assessment approach for EAD accords with the EUROCONTROL Safety Assessment Methodology (SAM), and, for each EAD release, consists of a Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA), Preliminary System Safety Assessment (PSSA) and System Safety Assessment (SSA), together with a Safety Case setting out the safety argument for EAD. The EAD Safety Case references the suite of evidence that together demonstrate an achieved level of safety. The EAD Safety Case is centred around a safety argument presented in Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) and is updated for each EAD release, identifying the evidence to support each claim within the argument structure, for that release. The EAD safety documentation sets out the extent of compliance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 73/2010 laying down requirements for ADQ, using the EUROCONTROL Data Assurance Level (DAL) Specification as a means of compliance. ADQ is considered in terms of the EAD system components (hardware, software and documentation) and the EAD service (Worldwide Data Management and EAD service desk). As a key element in the EAD safety assessment work, Ebeni works closely with EUROCONTROL, the EAD IT Provider (ITP), who are responsible for carrying out the EAD updates, and GroupEAD who are the EAD Service Provider.

THE BENEFIT

Ebeni’s safety experts have an intimate understanding of both the technology and service provided by EAD and the knowledge of all prevailing ATM regulations. For over 10 years, in a changing and challenging regulatory environment, Ebeni has successfully supported EUROCONTROL in the preparation of the safety case to support the deployment of each new EAD release.