The Taiwan Confidential Aviation Safety Reporting System (TCASRS) has proven to be ineffective in improving safety as only a few people voluntarily report safety issues they have experienced on the job to the Aviation Safety Council, lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee said yesterday in Taipei.
The criticism of the system arose at a committee meeting as lawmakers reviewed the council’s budget for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said the US receives about 90,000 aviation safety reports from pilots and other airline industry workers per year, but Taiwan has only received 20 reports this year.
He questioned why the system has such a low usage rate and asked if people would be punished for voluntarily reporting safety issues.
Lee said that the number of aviation safety reports filed through the TCASRS never exceeded 50 per year between 2011 and last year, and the number recorded pales in comparison with those filed in the US. He questioned if the council is addressing the issues contained in the reports.
The TCASRS in April received complaints from flight attendants who said that they had been overworked, three months before the nation’s first flight attendants strike in June.
There was also a complaint in March specifying that the ground crew at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were working in an environment with low visibility before one worker was reportedly injured this month in the airport’s restricted area when his car hit a pallet tractor, he said.
Lee said that a complaint was received in August alleging that when an EVA Air plane was forced to land at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport because of Typhoon Soudelor, the pilots called out “Mayday.”
The airline is facing a penalty from the Civil Aeronautics Administration for overworking its flight attendants and landing aircraft in unfavorable weather conditions when Typhoon Megi hit the nation last month, he said.
“Does the council merely function after major aviation accidents happen?” Lee asked, adding that both the council and the Civil Aeronautics Administration need to work in tandem.
Aviation Safety Council Executive Director Thomas Wang (王興中) said that the US receives so many reports because it has special legislation protecting people who voluntarily report safety issues by which they are not held accountable for any mistakes they make.
“Our system allows people to report aviation safety problems anonymously so that there will be no recriminations,” Wang said.
Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) said that people would either be exempt from being held responsible for their error or get a reduced penalty if they voluntarily report safety issues.
Agency statistics showed that approximately 1,200 mandatory and voluntary reports of safety problems had been received.
Council data showed that the nation’s turbine propeller hull loss rate was 3.09 times per million departures in the past 10 years, higher than the global average of 1.76 times per million departures.
The high hull loss rate was caused by two TransAsia Airways flights crashing in 2014 and last year.
DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) proposed an amendment to the Act of the Organization of the Aviation Safety Council (飛安會組織辦法) that would require the council’s commissioners to have experience in aviation safety issues.
“How can you investigate traffic accidents if you do not know how to drive?” Lin Chun-hsien said.
Article 4 of the act states that council commissioners should have expertise in meteorology, management, law, psychology, aviation, transportation or engineering, or should have experience investigating accidents.
Of the seven council commissioners, Lin Chun-hsien said that council Chairman Huang Huang-hui (黃煌煇) studied hydraulic and ocean engineering, two commissioners studied engineering, two psychology, one meteorology and the other used to work for China Airlines as a pilot, Lin Chun-hsien said.
Investigations of the aviation accidents are mainly conducted by the council’s accident investigators, Lin Chun-hsien added.
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