Apave Aeroservices to study the impact of security measures on aviation safety

The three-year project, the first of its kind, will examine the impact of aviation security measures on aviation safety and vice versa to ensure continued regulatory improvements to civilian air transportation.

Funded under Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-22, Cluster 8 Climate, Energy and Mobility, the project will deliver a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of security measures and security threats on safety across the aviation system. The project will identify specific areas where safety-security dependencies exist and opportunities to improve aviation safety-security regulatory standards.

Over the next 36 months, our consortium will deliver four main tasks:

• Task 1: Identify the interdependencies between security and safety
• Task 2: Assessment of the impact of security measures on safety
• Task 3: Analysis of certification standards
• Task 4: Integrated risk management

The first task will identify what aviation security measures affect safety and vice versa, and whether the effect is positive or negative. The same approach will be applied to job roles involving safety and security functions. The second task will examine the impact on areas and job roles that involve safety-security  interdependencies. Task three will explore safety-security interdependencies in the context of certification standards, such as air operators and aerodromes, equipment and staff screening, and aircraft design standards. The project will conclude with a series of recommendations to improve regulatory safety and security integration and coordination, with a particular focus on risk management.

In the words of project leader Kevin Sawyer, Senior Manager of Aviation Security at CAAi, "it marks a momentous step in understanding aviation safety-security interdependencies. To date, civil aviation safety and security regulations have largely been developed independently of each other, with limited interaction between the two domains. This project will give the global aviation community a full picture of the impact the two areas have on each  other concerning regulation. The results will prove valuable for industry and aviation regulators, paving the way for potential safety-security regulatory improvements in the future.”

Our partners on this project:

CAA International (CAAi) is the technical cooperation arm of the UK Civil Aviation

Authority. CAAi provides regulatory advice, training, capacity building programmes and examination services to aviation regulators and industry organisations across the globe. Drawing on world-leading expertise from within the UK regulator, CAAi helps organisations design and implement regulatory best practice to comply with international regulatory standards. In 2019, CAAi trained over 2,500 aviation professionals and worked in over 60 countries.

CASRA - APSS Software & Services Ltd is part of the Center for Adaptive Security

Research and Applications (CASRA), founded in 2008, emerged from the Visual Cognition Research Group of the University of Zurich, created by Adrian Schwaninger in 1999. Today, CASRA APSS has a workforce of around 40 people, comprising psychologists, economists, computer scientists, imaging specialists, software developers, aviation security experts, and more, most of whom have an academic degree. Studies in the areas of aviation security, human factors, human-machine interaction, cognitive and computational modelling, perception and recognition of objects have led to the development of applications for training and testing in the area of aviation and border security, installed at more than 900 airports and other sites, in over 50 countries.