Safety-not just done but seen to be done

The traditional approach to achieving functional safety on an airport was to follow the requirements laid down by ICAO or the UK CAA. This would involve provision of the necessary services and a visual inspection would confirm that it was satisfactory. The increase in air traffic and the availability of modern technologies is resulting in systems incorporating microprocessors for control and monitoring. The benefits of using this type of equipment must be balanced against the potential failure modes they may introduce. This requires the supplier to have a greater understanding of the functional safety of the airport and how the new system may impact on it. To resolve this it is necessary for the airport and the supplier to work together to show that the introduction of new equipment will not impact on the operational safety of the airport. An evidence based approach which will allow others to make an assessment on the level of safety likely to be achieved is now required for these systems