Safety of ATM systems

The “safety” of ATM systems is measured in terms of ability to prevent events that should not happen or that should very rarely happen and ability of consequences mitigation. From this it's generated the demand of metrics to measure the systems “safety”. Such metrics, dependent from various factors like the operational environment, the conditions of traffic, the technologies, etc., help to individualize the inclination of a system to produce an event “unsafe” and its ability to react.

The study of safety for ATC systems foresees the adjustment of EUROCONTROLs (ESARRs) legislation, already adopted in 2006 by the European Community. This legislation provides “Safety Assessment Methodology” (SAM) rules that all the builders and communitarian aerial traffic managers have to adopt to certify apparatuses and procedures involved in the ATM process. They are developed studies for risk reduction based on ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) principle, keeping in mind of the beneficent costs of systems development.

The legislation followed for the development of such analyses are sometimes entirely developed in accord with the internationally recognized guidelines.

The main ones are:

• MIL-STD-882D: System Safety Program Requirements
• IEC 61508: Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic Systems
• DEF STAN 00-56: Safety Management Requirements for Defence Systems

SESM have the tools and the necessary capabilities for systems evaluation analyses.