Notes from Meeting 8th May 2009

The delegates that attended the inaugural meeting agreed to establish the Forum in order to develop a body of knowledge in the form of papers and templates for any member airline to download and use as the basis of their own FRMS

The Committee propose to base the body of knowledge on the concept of an FRMS safety cycle where operational risk assessment drives evidenced based regulation thereby developing scientific understanding. It is anticipated that this approach will drive best practice and improved operational efficiency for the industry.

At the meeting, presentations were given by:

Douglas Mellor (QinetiQ) who organised the event and opened the meeting with welcomes to both speakers and delegates.

Simon Stewart (easyJet) who described the Committee’s vision of how the FRMS Forum would operate and the benefits to the aviation community

David Learmount (Flight International) who described some of the consequences of pilot fatigue in flight safety and welcomed the creation of the Forum

Kathryn Jones (UK CAA) who kindly represented Dr Virgilius Valentukevicius (EASA) and delivered his presentation on how EASA views FRMS

Simon Stewart (easyJet) who spoke about the journey that easyJet have taken in addressing fatigue issues within his company

Malcolm Christie (CASA,) who engaged the audience with how Fatigue was being addressed a the Regulator’s office in Australia

Dr David Powell (Air New Zealand) who described the advances his company has made in this area


Members can find all the presentations here. They are welcome to download them and use them as a basis to develop their own FRMS that is right for their company

The meeting agreed, by consensus, the following:

1. The creation of the FRMS Forum and adoption of the Governance Principles with one amendment viz the name of the Forum should be The Fatigue Risk Management Forum.

2. To appoint the Interim Committee as the Management Committee. This will comprise of:

Dr David Powell, Air New Zealand
Jim Mangie, Delta Airlines
Simon Stewart, easyJet
Dr Barbara Stone, QinetiQ
Rob Holliday, Virgin Atlantic
Douglas Mellor, QinetiQ

3. To agree a budget of £10,000 specifically for the creation of a website plus any miscellaneous expenses during the coming year.

4. To survey all registrants and solicit their views on the level of fees that will be acceptable in order to fund the budget.

5. To create subgroups for Regulators and Employee groups that may help to critique the work of the airlines to help mature the processes and ideas. The subgroups may also help mature their thoughts and approach for consistency and direction.

6. To hold the next meeting in a year’s time to collectively review the work of each sub group and integrate it. We’ll try to hold the meeting back-to-back with another industry event to dilute the effect on travel budgets as much as we can.

You can read David Learmount's account of the meeting at

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/05/12/326329/airlines-launch-fatigue-risk-management-forum.html

The committee has now set the membership fees at £250 per year per organisation and opened membership. The Members' area on the web site is now populated with a number of documents that members are welcome to download and use freely.

Please email Douglas Mellor if you wish to join the Forum