Safety Recommendations and Advice

STSB safety recommendations: How the FOCA reacts

Two aircraft fly too close to each other, several times in the same airspace. Or an aircraft crashes. These are examples of the type of cases the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) investigates. If safety failings are found, the STSB final report contains safety recommendations. Its task is to check whether recommendations are implemented and minimise the safety deficit.

The FOCA reports on the state of implementation

FOCA specialists examine each safety deficit submitted to the office in terms of risk. The FOCA (independent regulatory authority) and the STSB (independent authority for safety investigations) have different roles. They may therefore assess a risk in different ways. Furthermore, external factors may mean that a safety recommendation cannot be promptly implemented: perhaps a legal amendment is necessary or there are technical or operational adjustments by the industry which have cost implications.

The law stipulates that the FOCA must periodically inform the STSB and the responsible department DETEC about the implementation of STSB safety recommendations, or explain why the FOCA has not yet implemented the recommendations or taken any measures.

Interested in the FOCA's point of view? Here you find information on the FOCA's responses to the safety recommendations.

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Investigation of aviation accidents

The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) is the federal authority tasked with investigating accidents and
dangerous incidents involving various modes of transport, including aircraft. It identifies the direct causes of such events, and further investigates the underlying reasons and other associated risks.

If the STSB identifies safety deficits during its investigations, it makes safety recommendations to the responsible
regulatory authorities – in aviation, these are the FOCA, EASA, and depending on the case, an authority abroad. These authorities consider which measures are appropriate. The aim is to reduce or eliminate the risks associated with the
identified deficit. The processes are described in Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 and in the Ordinance on the Safety Investigation of Transport Incidents (OSITI).

In accordance with Article 48 OSITI, the FOCA periodically informs the STSB about the extent to which its recommendations have been implemented or provides reasons why measures have not been taken. For its part, the STSB categorises the measures as 'implemented', 'partially implemented' or 'not implemented', and publishes this information on

its website.

Safety advices

In the course of an investigation, safety deficits occasionally become apparent that cannot be remedied by adapting rules or regulations and direct supervisory activities, but rather by changing or improving risk awareness. In such cases, the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) formulates a safety advice aimed at specific stakeholders in the transport sector, which is intended to help the companies, individuals and organisations concerned to recognise a risk and the associated need for action.

Safety advices

The FOCA lists the safety instructions issued to date for information purposes.

Unlike safety recommendations, the legal foundations do not provide for feedback on the implementation of measures taken in response to safety advice