In a normal year, trying to mitigate the three persistent and long-standing safety concerns for airlines—loss of control inflight, controlled flight into terrain and runway excursions—would be more than enough to fill the working hours for International Airline Transport Association’s (IATA) Kevin Hiatt, senior vice president for safety and flight operations. This year, however, Hiatt is also addressing three recent high-profile atypical incidents—the disappearance ofMalaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) in March 2014, the shoot-down of MH17 in July 2014 and the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in March of this year.
IATA, which represents 250 member airlines carrying 84% of the world’s passengers, has a large stake in the final analysis of these accidents, which often spawn mandatory upgrades or changes. Another mission that is at least as important is the deployment of proactive measures to prevent future incidents and accidents—typical or atypical.
It is too soon to tell how the recent events might affect the “six-point safety strategy” Hiatt oversees for IATA. The strategy addresses operational risks—including loss of control (LOC), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and runway excursions—and emerging safety threats such as lithium-ion batteries and laser attacks. This purview could expand based on the MH370, MH17 and Germanwings events. The strategy also looks to bolster operational efficiency with standardized safety audits while supporting the use of safety management systems and effective recruitment and phasing out of nonprecision legacy navigation practices such as nondirectional beacon and VOR approaches.
Longer-term projects have to be balanced with unanticipated events, and this past year the “Big 3”—MH370, MH17 and Germanwings—have dominated the agenda.

Kevin Hiatt, IATA senior vice president for safety and flight operations. Credit: IATA

“Germanwings is a very big topic at the moment,” says Hiatt. At IATA’s operations conference in Los Angeles in April, the primary focus of the 20 member airlines that met to discuss “major issues” was the deadly crash in the French Alps in March—a CFIT that the French prosecutor has ruled as purposeful. The co-pilot was later found to have had a history of mental health issues that predated his being hired by Germanwings.
Hiatt says the response to the crash has been concentrated in three areas: further studies on pilot fitness; global requirements for “four eyes” in the cockpit at all times; and new information and guidance for the protection of safety information. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is taking an early lead in pilot mental health assessments, says Hiatt, by launching task committees of airlines and other outside experts to examine how airlines might determine the overall soundness of pilots downstream of the initial screening and vetting process. The crash also highlighted the benefits of having two crewmembers on the flight deck at all times, a standard operating procedure in the U.S. since 2001, but one that is not yet universal, in part because of unfamiliarity with the process. Regarding the increasing melding of criminal and civil investigations, Hiatt says the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is working to keep crash-related events from becoming a public spectacle and to guard against rushes to judgment. 
Operational changes that ICAO has called for since investigations into the disappearance of MH370 are notionally set for action by IATA airlines starting next year, although deliberations continue. During ICAO’s high-level safety conference in February, 130 nations agreed to implement a Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (Gadss) in phases; the first entails mandatory position-reporting by an aircraft at least every 15 min. during normal operations, and more frequent updates when certain anomalies occur. Airlines are supposed to comply with the tracking plan starting next year. 
Individual states and stakeholders are sending comments about Gadss directly to ICAO, where the Air Navigation Commission is processing the input. “Some agree, some agree but with comments, and some disagree with comments,” Hiatt says of the general process for input from states. “Everyone in principle is still on board with what came out of the high-level safety conference,” he adds, noting that comments are being weighed. “That’s what we’re waiting for next.” Hiatt says IATA is “on board” in concept with Gadss, although it wants more specificity about implementation of tracking in oceanic and remote areas. 
In parallel with the comment process, an ICAO-led Normal Aircraft Tracking Implementation Initiative (Natii), which includes IATA, is sponsoring a proof-of-concept (POC) study to figure out the nuts and bolts of implementing Gadss. The group is preparing its first “tabletop” exercise; flight demonstrations will follow. The group is expected to produce a final report from the POC in August. “The POC for the Gadss document will form the tracking initiatives the airlines will set up,” says Hiatt. “Some [airlines are already] trying it on their own, and some are already doing what will probably be the result of the Natii.” FedEx and Qatar Airways are “already there,” he says, but “most airlines are probably waiting to see what needs to be specifically put into place.” 
Actions following the shoot-down of MH17 in Eastern Ukraine have been more immediate, although perhaps more qualitative than quantitative. After the high level safety conference, ICAO agreed to build a portal on its website where member nations could post information to help airlines evaluate the risks of flying in certain conflict zones. “There have not been a lot of postings,” says Hiatt, “but we anticipate that as some of the bigger players—the U.S. and U.K.—[begin posting], we’ll see more use.” He says airlines are turning to the nascent site “to see who is posting what and comparing it to what they know through their own intelligence sources.” 
Will airlines abandon the site if the wealth of information does not expand? There’s “always that potential,” Hiatt says, but he notes that carriers are being patient. He believes that as more information is added, the visit rate will go up. 
Perhaps the most pressing of the “traditional” safety issues on IATA’s agenda is loss of control. IATA, along with its partners, has developed new website materials with accident reports, animations, case studies and some recommendations. “What we’re doing now with ICAO is to conduct regional workshops to help mitigate and hopefully [bring] the [LOC accident rate] down,” says Hiatt. “We also created an IATA pilot-training task force with 13 airline representatives and OEMS and put together a practical guide [so operators can develop] their own upset recovery training programs.” Upsets typically precede a LOC accident. 
IATA is also tracking “emerging” threats in the cabin. At its second cabin safety conference in Paris in early May, Hiatt says the 280 delegates, 91 airlines, four OEMs and six regulators discussed lithium-ion batteries in the cabin, unintended escape slide deployments, child safety seat restraints and updated safety videos designed to hold passengers’ attention. 
There was no resolution on child safety seat restraints. Because the definition of child sizes differs from country to country, as do opinions on the best type of equipment to use, the debate remains active, Hiatt says. 
Discussions on lithium-ion batteries in the cabin focused on guidance for flight attendants on what to do when a passenger laptop or tablet goes into an uncontrolled overheat, and how to handle the emerging problem of tablets being crushed by seat movements, particularly in the lay-flat seats in the premium cabin. 
For overheating computers, Hiatt says, there is no real change in the solution: “Get it on the floor and douse it with as much water as you can.” As for the premium-seat tablet problem, he says passengers “may see some airlines getting more aggressive with cabin safety talks on stowing devices.”