Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/2082 of 26 November 2021 laying down the arrangements for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the common European risk classification scheme (Text with EEA relevance)

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down the arrangements for the implementation of the common European risk classification scheme (‘ERCS’) set out in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions in Article 2 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034 apply.

The following definitions also apply:

• (1) ‘ARMS-ERC methodology’ means the methodology developed by the industry working group ‘Airline Risk Management Solutions’ (ARMS) for assessing operational risks;

• (2) ‘ATM’ means air traffic management as defined in Article 2(10) of Regulation (EC) No 549/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council ([^E0001]);

• (3) ‘ATM airborne severity score’ means the part of the RAT methodology that assesses the air operation performance of the occurrence;

• (4) ‘ATM ground severity score’ means the part of the RAT methodology that assesses the system performance (procedures, equipment and human) of the ATM system;

• (5) ‘ATM overall severity score’ means the ATM ground severity score and ATM airborne severity score combined into one single score;

• (6) ‘RAT methodology’ means the Risk Analysis Tool methodology developed by Eurocontrol used to classify safety related occurrences in the ATM domain;

• (7) ‘Eurocontrol’ is the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation set up by the International Convention of 13 December 1960 relating to Cooperation for the Safety of Air Navigation ([^E0002]).

Article 3

Review, amendment, and endorsement of the safety risk classification

Article 4

Monitoring and improvement of the ERCS

Article 5

Monitoring of compatibility with other risk classification schemes

Article 6

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 2023.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX

Conversion procedures from the Risk Analysis Tool (RAT) and Aviation Risk Management Solutions – Event Risk Classification (ARMS-ERC) scores into the European Risk Classification Scheme (ERCS) scores

This Annex lays down conversion procedures from RAT and ARMS ERC scores to the ERCS score ([^E0003]) defined in Step 2 of the Annex to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034.

The following conversion procedures provide either a direct or a manual conversion to obtain an ERCS classification equivalent to the RAT and/or ARMS – ERC scores in accordance with Article 3 of this Regulation.

1. DIRECT CONVERSION

The mandatory conversion procedure consists of the following two workflows:

• — Workflow 1 - provides a direct conversion to obtain the ERCS severity score,

• — Workflow 2 - provides direct conversion to obtain the ERCS probability score.

Figure 1 shows an overview of the procedures. The starting point of the process is the ‘occurrence report submitted’ box and the output the ‘Equivalent ERCS score’ box. The dotted lines in Figure 1 indicate that only one source for each process result is required.

Figure 1

Conversion procedures Image omitted; see official source

1.1.   WORKFLOW 1 – ERCS severity score

a. ‘Occurrence category’ and ‘Mass group’ information

• — If the occurrence report contains information on the ‘occurrence category’ of the occurrence and the ‘mass group’, then these can be converted into the ‘Severity of potential accident outcome’ ERCS score. The next step is (b) of Figure 1.

• — If the occurrence report contains no information about the ‘occurrence category’ or the ‘mass group’, or both, direct conversion is not possible. If the manual conversion described in point 2 of this Annex is used, then next step is (D) of Figures 1 and 5.

b. ‘Occurrence category’ and ERCS Key Risk Area (KRA) conversion

• — If the ‘occurrence category’ of the occurrence report corresponds directly to the one of the ERCS Key Risk Areas defined in point 1.2 of Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034 then the next step is (c) of Figure 1.

• — For occurrence reports with ‘occurrence categories’ different from the ERCS Key Risk Areas, there is no direct conversion. If the manual conversion described in point 2 of this Annex is used, then the next step is (D) of Figures 1 and 5.

c. ERCS ‘Severity of potential accident outcome’ score – direct conversion

• — If the occurrence report contains information about ‘occurrence category’ and ‘mass group’ then the severity score is directly converted into an appropriate ERCS ‘severity of potential accident outcome’ score. The result is (k), which gives the first digit corresponding to the alphabetic value resulting from the calculation of the severity of the occurrence (severity score A to X).

1.2.   WORKFLOW 2 – ERCS probability score

e. Occurrence report scored using RAT

If the occurrence report has been scored using the RAT methodology ([^E0004]):

• — Occurrence reports that have a RAT ‘ATM overall’ severity score classification can be mapped directly to the ERCS probability columns as explained in step (g) of Figure 1,

• — Occurrence reports that only have a RAT ‘ATM ground’ severity ([^E0005]) score have to be manually converted to provide the ERCS probability score. If the manual conversion described in point 2 of this Annex is used, then next step is (L) of figure 5,

• — In the case of occurrence reports coded as ‘ATM-specific occurrence’, conversion between the RAT and ERCS scores is not possible.

f. RAT ‘ATM overall’ severity score

• — If an occurrence report contains the ‘ATM overall’ severity score, then the next step is (g) of Figure 1.

g. ERCS column ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ converted from RAT ‘ATM Overall’ value ( relevant only for A, B, C, E values)

For the occurrence reports with an ‘ATM Overall’ severity score (A, B, C, E) classification, the following direct conversion into ERCS probability categories applies:

Figure 2

RAT ‘ATM overall’ severity score conversion onto the ERCS probability score Image omitted; see official source

h. Occurrence reports classified using the ARMS-ERC methodology

• — For the occurrence reports that have been scored according to the ARMS-ERC, the next step is (i) of Figure 1.

• — For the occurrence reports that have not been scored according to the ARMS-ERC methodology, the next step is (M) of Figure 5.

i. Standard 4x4 ARMS-ERC matrix

If the 4x4 ARMS-ERC matrix depicted in Figure 3 is used to score the occurrence report, then the next step is (j) of Figure 1.

Figure 3

Standard 4x4 ARMS-ERC matrix Image omitted; see official source

j. ERCS ‘Probability of the potential accident outcome’ score – direct conversion

If the occurrence report contains an ARMS ‘Barrier Effectiveness’ rating, then to determine the ERCS ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ score a following direct conversion to the ERCS matrix is used.

Figure 4

Conversion of ARMS-ERC to ERCS probability categories. Image omitted; see official source

k. Equivalent ERCS Score

The combination of the ERCS ‘Severity of potential accident outcome’ and ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ scores are combined in the ERCS matrix to generate an equivalent ERCS score as laid down in Step 2 of Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034.

2. MANUAL CONVERSION

This manual conversion consists of the following two workflows:

• — Workflow 1 - provides a manual conversion to obtain the ERCS severity score,

• — Workflow 2 - provides a manual conversion to obtain the ERCS probability score.

Figure 5

Manual conversion Image omitted; see official source

2.1.   WORKFLOW 1

D. ERCS ‘Severity of potential accident outcome’ score – manual conversion

• — If the occurrence report contains no information about the ‘occurrence category’ or ‘mass group’, or both, then the ERCS methodology defined in Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034 applies to determine the ‘Potential Accident Outcome’ or Key Risk Area. The final result is (k), which gives the first digit corresponding to the alphabetic value resulting from the calculation of the severity of the occurrence (severity score A to X).

2.2.   WORKFLOW 2

L. ERCS column ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ – manual procedure

• — For the occurrence reports containing no ‘ATM overall’ severity there is no direct conversion to the ERCS ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ score.

The ‘ATM ground’ severity can however provide for a partial conversion by mapping the ‘ATM ground’ barrier assessment and the ERCS barrier assessment process defined in point 2.1.3 of Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034.

M. ERCS ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ score – manual process

If the occurrence reports do not use the 4x4 ARMS-ERC matrix to score the occurrence, to generate an ERCS ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ score the ARMS-ERC barrier assessment value is converted into the ERCS barrier assessment laid down in point 2.1.3 of Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034.

k. Equivalent ERCS Score

The combination of the ERCS ‘Severity of potential accident outcome’ and ‘Probability of potential accident outcome’ scores are combined in the ERCS matrix to generate an equivalent ERCS score as laid down in Step 2 of Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2034.

[^E0001]: Regulation (EC) No 549/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 March 2004 laying down the framework for the creation of the single European sky (the framework Regulation) (OJ L 96, 31.3.2004, p. 1).

[^E0002]: Convention modified by the protocol of 12 February 1981 and revised by the protocol of 27 June 1997.

[^E0003]: The ERCS score is a two-digit value where the first digit corresponds to the alphabetic value resulting from the calculation of the severity of the occurrence (severity score A to X) and the second digit represents the numerical value from the calculation of the corresponding score of the occurrence (probability).

[^E0004]: The RAT methodology classifies Air Traffic Management related occurrences.RAT methodology does not score accidents, as it measures only how close the ATM occurrence was to becoming an accident. The RAT methodology is divided into several main elements (i.e. ‘ATM ground’, ‘ATM airborne’), in which each delivers a part of the input for the final RAT ‘ATM overall’ severity score. In order to achieve ‘ATM Overall’ severity score, both ‘ATM ground’ and ‘ATM airborne’ severity scores must be available.

[^E0005]: The ‘severity’ under the RAT methodology indicates how bad the actual occurrence was in comparison to other occurrences. The RAT methodology determines ‘severity’ through an assessment of the defences/barriers.