K. Rooney
International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal
E-mail: krooney@icao.int
Abstract
A brief history is given of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a special-ized agency of the United Nations. Recent initiatives in relation to safety and security are discussed.
1. INTRODUCTION
The year 2003 marks 100 years of aviation. Many people from many nations contributed to the successful achievement of human-accompanied flight. Figure 1 shows a steam-powered monoplane built by Alexander Mozhaisky in Russia in the late 1890s. It took off from a jump ramp and flew for approximately 30 m. Otto Lilienthal in Germany was the first to actually launch himself into the air using gliders made from cloth stretched over a willow framework. From 1891, he made over two thousand glider flights and unfortunately died during one of them in 1896.
An Australian—showing the diversity of the nationalities—Laurence Hargrave invented the box kite, a remarkably stable form that generated a lot of lift. It had a huge influence on the design of the first aeroplanes.
Figure 2 suggests that aviation was using the 9 m drop test in advance of the regulations requiring such, but this shows Frenchman Ferdinand Ferber who, in June 1903, built a copy of a Wright glider, attached a motor to it and attempted to fly tethered to a crane. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.
And so we arrive at what we now call International Aviation Day within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). On 17 December 1903, Orville Wright made the first powered, fully controlled flight (Fig. 3). Its total duration was 12 s, covering 120 ft. Developments continued at pace. There was
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FIG. 1. Alexander Mozhaisky’s steam powered monoplane.
FIG. 2. Ferdinand Ferber attempting to fly a motorized Wright glider.
FIG. 3. First powered flight in a controllable aircraft.
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a major psychological breakthrough in 1909, when Louis Blériot crossed over the English Channel in a monoplane.
Figure 4 provides an example of an early passenger aircraft, albeit rather limited in capacity. It shows Mr. Wright with his sister Catherine, whose skirts were tied down to prevent them from getting in the way of the controls.
In 1910, the first aircraft radio communication with the ground was achieved by Canadian James McCurdy. The first international airmail flight, between Vancouver, Canada, and Seattle, United States of America, was piloted by William Boeing—a well known name in aviation circles—and Eddie Hubbard in 1919. However, there is no record of whether radioactive material was transported on that historic flight. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic crossing, taking 33½ hours.
2. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION
All this activity in the new world of aviation led to needs for rules and controls, which resulted in the meeting of 52 national delegations in Chicago, USA in 1944 (Fig. 5). On 7 December 1944, the Convention on International Civil Aviation was signed. On seeing Fig. 5, some may have a sense of deja vu.
It shows the ballroom of the then Stephen’s Hotel, now the Hilton, where the FIG. 4. An early example of a (small) passenger aircraft.
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International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM) was held in 2001, one of the many links between ICAO and the transport of radioactive material.
One of the basic tenets of the Convention lies in Article 37: each contracting State will attempt to secure the highest practicable degree of uniformity in regulations, standards, procedures and organization in relation to aircraft and personnel so as to facilitate and improve air navigation.
3. THE ROLE OF ICAO
ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations similar to IAEA. It was created with the Convention in 1944 and a provisional ICAO was in existence by June 1945. It became fully operational in 1947, with 52 contracting States. There now are 188 contracting States. The aims of ICAO are to develop the principles of international air navigation and to foster planning and development of air transport so as to promote the safety of flight, to improve aircraft design and operation and to ensure safe, regular, efficient and economical air transport.
FIG. 5. Signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, 1944.
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The Convention accepts the very basic principle that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the air space above its territory, and provides that no scheduled international air service may operate over or into that territory without its previous consent. The ICAO achieves its mandate via the creation and updating of the standards and recommended practices (SARPS) in the 18 annexes to the Convention, the most recent of which is Annex 18, the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, which became applicable on 1 January 1984. Those involved with transport of radioactive material will be aware that Class 7 is contained within the annexes. In addition to the development of the annex material, guidance material contained within our technical instructions is also developed.
As mentioned, the ICAO has 188 contracting States, representatives of which meet in assembly at least once every three years to review and to provide guidance on the work of the organization in the various technical, economic and legal fields. The Council, however, is a permanent body, which is unusual for a specialized agency, composed of representatives of 36 member States elected by the Assembly for three-year terms. With its subsidiary bodies, it provides continuing guidance for the work of the organization. One of the major tasks of the Council is to adopt SARPS contained within the annexes.
Although the Council is responsible for the adoption of the SARPS, the principle body concerned with their development is the Air Navigation Commission (ANC).
The ANC is composed of 15 technical experts, nominated by States but acting in their own personal expert capacity. To assist their work, panels of experts (e.g. for dangerous goods) meet and recommend changes to the annexes.
The Secretariat supports the work of the ICAO. Assad Kotaite is the third president of the ICAO Council. He was elected in 1976 and has been re-elected at each subsequent Assembly. The Secretary General is Costa Pereira.
The ICAO has seven regional offices with a staff of approximately 200, with 550 personnel at the headquarters in Montreal and a further 250 involved in technical cooperation.
4. AVIATION ACCIDENT TREND ANALYSIS
In the past decade, there have been continuous declines both in the number of accidents in which aircraft have been destroyed and in the number of fatalities. The lowest numbers were obtained in 2002 and would be even lower in the absence of charter operations. High profile accidents that are covered in the media at great length generally result from charter flights. In the
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past decade there has been approximately a 50% reduction in accident number, and the fatal accident rate fell from approximately 2.5 per million departures at the beginning of the decade to a low of 0.81. The rate of destroyed aircraft has similarly been reduced, from a high of about 3 per million departures to about 1.
Concerns over relatively high accident rates in certain regions led to the development of safety oversight assessments: States requested ICAO to visit and assess their organizations, starting in 1995. As a result, a Directors General of Civil Aviation Conference was convened in 1997 at which was recommended the development of a new programme of global capacity for safety oversight.
This led to the ICAO Assembly of 1998 and Assembly Resolution A32/11, which led to the permanent establishment of an ICAO universal safety oversight audit programme. It was launched in January 1999 and ordered States’ oversight capabilities with three of our annexes, those for personal licensing, Annex 1, operations of aircraft, Annex 6, and worthiness of aircraft, Annex 8. Almost all contracting States have undergone an initial audit and some are undergoing follow-up missions.
In 2001, under Assembly Resolution A33/8, the ICAO continued expansion and a further three annexes were added to the audit list for air-traffic services, for aerodromes and for aircraft accident investigation. Our original assessments were similar to the appraisals organized by the IAEA. Initially voluntary, the assessments are now mandatory. They were confidential whereas now there is a large degree of transparency, and they were originally funded by contributions from the member States but are now part of our regular programme. In the original assessment period between March 1996 and December 1998, 85 requests were received, and 67 contracting States were assessed. The programme principles include such items as State sovereignty, which goes back to Article 1 of the Convention. Universality is covered under Assembly Resolution A33/11, which explicitly states that the ICAO will conduct regular and mandatory safety oversight audits, covering aspects of transparency of disclosure of information, timeliness, objectivity and fairness:
each contracting State is given every opportunity to respond to the audit and to comment on its quality. The items contained in the audits are in compliance with the Chicago Convention and State regulations, they conform to ICAO standards and adhere both to recommended practices and relevant industry practices. We looked at national aviation legislation and attendant regulations and examined the organizational structure and legal status of the States’ civil aviation authorities and what systems were in place for certification and continued surveillance of aircraft, personnel and operators.
Regarding implementation of the critical safety standards, as of March 2003, 181 member States had been audited with follow-ups completed in
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80 member States. Findings revealed lack of implementation of ICAO SARPS and failures to implement critical elements of the safety oversight system. One lesson learned is that problems are not limited to any one region and a link exists between audit findings and regional accident rates, although it is not possible to draw a direct statistical correlation. This supports the conclusion that ICAO audits can be an effective tool for identifying deficiencies and enhancing aviation safety.
5. SECURITY IN AIR TRANSPORT
The attacks of 11 September 2001 had a dramatic impact on aviation security. Our thirty-third Assembly started two weeks to the day of 11 September and Resolution A33/1 contained an immediate plan of action that included convening a high-level ministerial conference on aviation security and an aviation security plan of action that included strengthening Annex 17 SARPS, development of new standards in other annexes (including Annex 6), reinforcement of cockpit doors and development of the universal security audit programme. The latter includes examination of security at the national level, organization, administration and cooperation with other States, and at the airport level, organization, access control, security—passenger, cabin baggage and hold baggage—in-flight security, and cargo security which of course includes dangerous goods and radioactive material, and responses to acts of unlawful interference and contingency arrangements.
As of last week, 63 AVSEC experts had been trained and certified as security auditors. Eight audits have been conducted and it is our intention to have 20 more completed by the end of 2003, and 40 more in 2004. A five-year cycle will be introduced during which all 188 Member States will be audited.
Cargo security is covered in Annex 17 and, at the United Nations Committee of Experts in December, 2002, new provisions were introduced on the security during transport of dangerous goods. The Dangerous Goods Panel will meet in October and November 2003, when one of the main issues for discussion will be whether such material should be in Annex 17 or Annex 18. It is an ongoing process for ICAO, based on the inextricable links between security and safety.
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