“One of the key risk areas for General Aviation (GA) is mid-air collisions. In the EASA Member States, there are an average of 6 fatal collisions every year — tragically leading to the loss of 13 lives every year.” Source: easa.europa.eu
What can pilots do to protect themselves and others?
The key in avoiding mid-air collisions is ensuring to see and avoid traffic. Traffic information systems relying on electronic visibility are an important complement to applying this principle. Whether flying an airplane, glider, balloon, paraglider, or any other type of airborne vehicle, being electronically visible to others is essential.
Electronic visibility or electronic conspicuity (e-conspicuity) is designed to enhance how easily an aircraft can be detected and identified — both by ground-based observers, such as air traffic controllers and drone operators, and by other pilots — serving as a valuable complement to the pilot’s visual awareness (enhanced see and avoid).
If an aircraft is not only electronically visible to others but also equipped with tools to visualize the surrounding traffic, its pilot gains several important safety and situational awareness benefits: (enhanced traffic awareness).
- Enhanced Collision Avoidance: By seeing where other aircraft are in real time the pilot can spot potential conflicts early and take timely action to avoid them.
- Improved Situational Awareness: Knowing what’s around the aircraft helps the pilot build a clearer mental picture of the traffic environment, particularly in busy or uncontrolled airspace. This reduces the cognitive load and stress during high-workload phases of flight
- More Informed Decision-Making: With traffic information available in the cockpit, pilots can make smarter routing decisions, plan strategic avoidance, or adjust their flight path to avoid busy areas.
- Safety in Low-Visibility or Remote Areas: When visual contact is limited — such as in haze, low light, or remote areas — traffic visualization tools help keeping awareness of aircraft that might otherwise be difficult or impossible to spot with the naked eye.
In short, being seen is vital — but being able to see others is a game-changer for safety, confidence, and the overall flying experience.
How to do that?
Airspace users can become electronically visible by equipping their aircraft with an adequate e-conspicuity technology such as ADS-B or ADS-L. The following technical recommendation contains suitable technologies organized by different aircraft types.
What is i-conspicuity and why is i-conspicuity good for every airspace user?
An ecosystem where all aircraft are e-conspicuous and can communicate with each other is the basis of i-conspicuity.
i-conspicuity offers significant safety and situational awareness advantages for airspace users. By making an aircraft electronically visible to others in the airspace, it greatly reduces the risk of mid-air collisions - especially in busy or uncontrolled environments. With more airspace users sharing the skies, i-conspicuity helps ensure that everyone can be seen and detected in real time.
Devices forming the i-conspicuity ecosystem may have another advantage: they may receive additional valuable data such as live weather updates, airspace notifications and other valuable data supporting the pilot in his decision making and flight planning. Ultimately, if i-conspicuity is essentially about see and being seen — the ecosystem will allow staying informed, connected, and safer in an increasingly complex airspace.
- e-conspicuity (electronic conspicuity), is an umbrella term for a range of technologies that can help pilots to be more aware of other aircraft in the same airspace. Being e-conspicuous can be seen as an effective safety measure.
- i-conspicuity, which stands for interoperable conspicuity, refers to the capability of different e-conspicuity systems to seamlessly communicate with one another, allowing all aircraft equipped with such systems to be electronically visible to each other regardless of the specific technology they use.
Further Information
Last modification 26.05.2025
