Weather Risk Management

It’s a fact! Weather has a significant impact on safety, air traffic management (ATM), fuel burn, and on-time performance. Weather was a contributing factor in 46% of fatal accidents between 2014 and 2018 – 33% all accidents. In the US, about 75% of delays are weather-related; costing billions of dollars per year. Besides delays, NASA’s Aviation Safety program estimates the cost to the airlines from encounters with turbulence runs more than $100 million USD per year, with one airline estimating that each encounter of severe turbulence costs an average of $750,000 USD. In addition to the direct costs, an encounter with adverse weather may result in turbulence-related injuries, flight diversions, increased fuel burn, and passenger inconvenience.

To allow for lessons learned, air safety events must be comprehensively investigated to determine how weather was a contributing causal factor. Investigations must include gathering and interpreting atmospheric data to establish the state of the atmosphere at the time of the occurrence, during the flight, as well as pre-flight. Detailed analysis of atmosphere data will enable investigators to identify if, and what, meteorological factors played a role in event causation (e.g., low-level wind shear, icing, strong crosswinds, turbulence encounter, and rapidly deteriorating visibility).

Though it is important to understand what meteorological conditions and phenomena influenced the aircraft, it is also important to understand controller, pilot and dispatcher decisions in relation to weather. By having a detailed understanding of the meteorological conditions present at the time of the occurrence, in-flight, and pre-flight, investigators will be better able to understand situations encountered by the controllers, pilots and dispatchers, as well as the operational decisions that came out of them. This analysis may highlight issues with controller, pilot or dispatcher incorrect and/or incomplete knowledge due to training deficiencies, and/or poor dissemination of weather data, or incomplete weather data due to reporting limitations. By combining forensic meteorology and Human Factors, investigators will not only be able to identify unsafe preconditions and individual failures, but organisational and regulatory failures (e.g., inadequate weather SOPs; inadequate MET training requirements) that may have played a role in the occurrence.

To facilitate a comprehensive understanding of how weather played a role in occurrence causation, a systematic approach to weather investigations is examined during this course. This course will examine guidance outlined in ICAO Doc. 9756 - Manual of Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation - Part III to ensure investigators look at weather-rated mishaps from, obviously, a meteorological perspective identifying the weather conditions and phenomena that may have played a contributing role in the mishap, but also from a technical and Human Factors and organisational perspective. Understanding the context in which humans err is fundamental to understanding the unsafe conditions that may have affected their behaviour and decision-making. These unsafe conditions may be indicative of systemic risks posing significant accident potential. Air safety investigators will then be able to prepare recommendations to reduce future recurrence. Those working within an airline or air traffic control, results will inform corrective and preventive actions within your Safety Management System.

This three day (3 day) workshop is designed to provide delegates with the necessary knowledge of how meteorological hazards and weather risk management deficiencies contribute to decision errors and weather-related accidents. 

The course will include such topics as:

• Managing the Impact of Weather on Safety
  

This course is for individuals who may become involved in future aircraft incident/accident investigations; including airline air safety investigators, pilot union representatives, government investigators and investigators for air traffic services, military and aviation insurance agencies.

- Aircraft Accident Investigators
- Safety Managers
- Safety Officers

- Civil Aviation Authority Inspectors

Participants must have a firm meteorology knowledge level equivalent to that of an Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) or Flight Dispatch Licence or their Military equivalent.  

Workshop Duration: 3 days (0900h to 1700h each day).

Location: Various locations – In-house available.

Fee: $1250.00 USD

Discount: 

10% Discount when 6 or more participants from the same company (on the same invoice) are registered.

 5% Discount when 3 - 5 participants from the same company (on the same invoice) are registered.

Our courses can be delivered to your offices and tailored to your organisation's needs. If you have a group of 5 or more individuals for this course, please contact us and we will provide you with information about bringing this course to your offices at a time convenient for you and your staff.

BACK | HOME