CAAC: Improve Aviation Security Mechanisms and Practically Improve Security Level

After China’s civil aviation became the world’s second largest air transport system after the United States, with the improvement of civil aviation safety management, China’s ranks among the advanced countries of civil aviation safety in the world with its good safety record.

In recent years, the number of aircraft owned by China’s civil aviation has grown rapidly, and the total number of flights has steadily increased. In the past five years, the number of aircraft ownership has grown by an average of 212 aircraft per year, of which 119 aircraft transport aircraft have grown on average annually. As of now, there are a total of 3098 aircraft in the industry, of which 1,853 aircraft are transported, and the total volume of transport aircraft has increased by nearly 50% compared with 2008. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the total number of civil aviation transportation flights in China reached 20.37 million hours, which was close to double the “15th Five-Year Plan” period and exceeded the sum of the total number of flight operations in the 55 years before the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”.

With the rapid increase in total flight volume and continuous increase in security pressures, China's civil aviation system has made joint efforts to achieve a sound safety production performance. From 2008 to 2011, China's transport aviation million hours of major accidents rate was 0.05 (the world average was about 0.3 during the same period, of which the United States was 0.18), and the number of major accidents per million was 0.11 (over the same period the world average was 0.5, of which the United States was 0.27) The death toll in the passenger and kilometer kilometers was 0.003 (the world average was 0.01 in the same period). In recognition of the outstanding achievements made by China Civil Aviation in flight safety, in 2009 the International Flight Safety Foundation awarded the world’s only “Outstanding Contribution to Civil Aviation Safety Award” to the Chinese Civil Aviation.

Establish a continuous safety concept. The improvement of the security level cannot be separated from the promotion of ideas and management innovation. In 2008, under the guidance of Comrade Li Jiaxiang, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration, under the guidance of Comrade Li Jiaxiang of the Civil Aviation Administration, the CAAC Party Group carefully summarized the experience and lessons of civil aviation safety management over the past 60 years, and in-depth analyzed the characteristics of various stages of civil aviation safety management. Insufficient and in view of new situations, new problems, and new challenges in the development of civil aviation safety, the new concept of civil aviation safety management, the concept of continuous safety, emphasizes the continuity and permanence of safety management, and strengthens the concept system, rules system, and team system. The establishment of a responsibility system and efforts to establish and improve a long-term safety production mechanism work hard to ensure that safety production work is normalized and long-term benefits are achieved, thereby promoting the transformation of civil aviation safety management concepts, methodological innovations, and enhancing supervision effectiveness.

Strictly implement the "four responsibilities." The key to achieving security development lies in the implementation of responsibilities. First, the CAAC proposes to implement the responsibility system, that is, to strictly implement the main responsibility of the production unit, the supervision responsibility of the government department, the leadership responsibility of the leading cadres, and the post responsibilities of the employees. It is also clear that the main responsibility is the basis for supervision. Responsibility is the guarantee, post responsibility is the foundation, and leadership responsibility is the key. Second, focusing on the five aspects of the legal representative's overall responsibility for safety production, the implementation of regulatory standards, safety organization and management, safe capital investment, and the construction of the staff team, the strict implementation of the main responsibility for safety production. Third, we must abandon the assault-style and sport-style work methods such as safety assessments, safety inspections, and safety overhauls, and replace them with normalized system safety management methods such as safety audits and safety management system construction to raise the level of safety supervision in the industry.

Pay close attention to the construction of the core team. Pilots are the core force for ensuring flight safety and are also the most important task for the construction of civil aviation professional and technical personnel. The CAAC strictly controls the access, training, transition, practice, and key personnel, and conducts in-depth investigations of ideas, techniques, and styles of work to ensure that the qualifications of the flight team meet the requirements. In 2008, the Civil Aviation Administration severely investigated and punished 192 pilots with unqualified academic qualifications and flight experience, and adopted compulsory measures such as revoking the flight license, supplementing flight training, and reducing the flight level to correct it. In 2010, the Civil Aviation Administration issued the “Civil Air Transport Captain’s Responsibility” and asked all airlines to organize rotation training and to carry out investigations on the captain and instructor’s flight theory and technical conditions. In 2011, the industry-wide inspection of a total of 10092 pilots, passing rate of 98.2%. The 185 pilots failed to take measures such as supplementary training, degraded use, and re-examination to strengthen and improve. At the same time, the key professional and technical personnel such as maintenance, dispatch, and air traffic management also conducted in-depth investigations of their qualifications. Through these effective measures, the number of serious accidents in air transport caused by human-caused factors decreased by 46.7% year-on-year and the per-hour rate dropped by 51.7% year-on-year, resulting in a significant increase in the quality of flight safety. This year, the Civil Aviation Administration has taken the management of key professional qualifications such as flight, maintenance, air traffic control and dispatch as an ongoing monitoring project.

Continue to promote the system construction. Aviation safety is a large and complex system. It must improve the overall operational efficiency of the industry through system safety management. On the one hand, the CAAC conducts safety audits on all transport airlines, airports, maintenance and air traffic control units to ensure compliance with civil aviation regulations and the completeness of facilities and equipment. On the other hand, in accordance with the requirements of the ICAO, we vigorously promoted the construction of a safety management system (SMS) and urged the airlines to integrate safety risk management into the management of the entire organization and construction, safety policy formulation, and flight, transportation control, maintenance, and cabins. Each stage of the ground service, freight transportation, training and other operational processes establishes a safety management system that is driven by data, identified and controlled by hazards, and reviews the safety management performance of airlines based on the operational status of the system. At present, the vast majority of transport airlines have established a safety management system. These normalized system security management methods provide a long-term management model for civil aviation companies to implement the main responsibility for safe production and ensure the long-term stability of air transportation.

Effectively improve the security level. We will improve the aviation security system and mechanism, focus on the situation of maintaining stability in Xinjiang and Tibet, study the new dynamics in the anti-terrorist anti-hijacking campaign, make key prevention and comprehensive prevention, and continue to seize new victories in air defense security. On March 7, 2008, China Southern Airlines Xinjiang Branch successfully thwarted a terrorist incident and fulfilled the civil aviation system's solemn commitment to ensure a "Safe Olympics." On August 7, 2011, the Urumqi airport security inspection department successfully thwarted a terrorist group's attempt to use aircraft to make sabotage. The public security department took a turn for the better, destroyed more than 40 violent terrorist groups, and made social stability and national counter-terrorism struggles in Xinjiang. Made a major contribution. On June 29th, 2012, with the courageous assistance of passengers, the crew members of Tianjin Airlines successfully fought with six robbers and successfully thwarted the violent terrorist hijacking scheme to safeguard the national interest and the people’s lives and property. The Civil Aviation Department issued the “6-29” crew for the award and awarded it the honorary title of “China’s civil aviation anti-hijacking machine hero unit”.

Efforts to improve regulatory effectiveness. Adhering to the administration according to law, strict supervision, perfecting industry rules and systems, innovating safety supervision methods, and strictly implementing safety supervision responsibilities of administrative agencies are important guarantees for achieving civil aviation safety. At present, China’s civil aviation has initially established a complete system of laws and regulations and has achieved full coverage of all domestic civil aviation activities, and the vast majority of regulations and standards have achieved international standards. In 2008, Pan American flight instructors and trainees went against the law to commit frauds and resolutely banned them. In response to Sichuan Langke Aviation Technology's illegal production and sales of "fake materials," they revoked their maintenance licenses. In 2011, in response to the extremely large potential safety hazards of the “military and ambulance” high-tension lines that severely affected the cleanliness and electromagnetic environment of Tianjin Airport, the Tianjin Airport adopted risk control measures such as raising operating standards, limiting capacity increase, and listing them as supervised projects for supervision. The government raised 240 million yuan for rectification. For enterprises that are in a sluggish security situation, meet their responsible person in a timely manner and take accountability. Take comprehensive measures such as reducing the total number of flights, raising operating standards, and proposing to replace the person in charge of the company, so as to ensure that the security guarantee capability is compatible with the development of the company.

Comprehensively manage safety management. In order to achieve safe development under the conditions of strong social demand, insufficient key resources, rapid industry development, and weak support capability, the CAAC promptly proposed “three strengths and three preventions” (a self-satisfaction and self-satisfaction to prevent paralysis; blindly optimistic , to prevent the innumerable minds; to guard against laggards, to prevent lax management requirements, and to use a variety of means to consolidate and improve the safety margin of the industry. Since 2008, the approval of newly established transportation airlines has been suspended for three consecutive years, and the threshold for the establishment of branches (subsidiaries) has been raised. In response to the problem of excessive development of the industry and insufficient guarantee capacity, the introduction of plans for the introduction of industrial aircraft was reduced from 2008 to 2011, and 149 aircraft were introduced to the industry. Formulate the Interim Measures for the Financial Assessment of Civil Aviation Safety Protection to assess the financial security of civil aviation companies. We will clarify the investment orientation of the Civil Aviation Development Fund, and more lean towards the basic construction related to ensuring security.

Vigorously advocate the advancement of science and technology. CAAC attached great importance to the supporting role of scientific and technological progress in aviation safety, formulated the "12th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Development of Civil Aviation of China, improved the investment policy for science and technology, and increased support for the promotion and application of mature technologies and R & D core technologies. In recent years, the Civil Aviation Administration has completed the measurement of the World Geodetic Coordinate System (WGS-84) of National Civil Aviation, and vigorously promotes RNP (Necessary Performance Navigation), ADS-B (Automatic Broadcasting-related Surveillance System), and HUD (Human Display System). And other new technologies. Especially after RNP technology is put into use on the western plateau, high altitude and special complex airports, it not only makes the flight more accurate, safe and efficient, but also reduces the work intensity of the unit and improves the level of safe operation. The self-developed Characteristic Material Blocking System (EMAS) passed the industry certification in June this year and officially entered the product market application stage. All these have provided strong technical support for the continuous security of the civil aviation industry.