| The Level Best
Campaign
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Latest updates July 2008 here
The Scale of the Problem:
NATS figures for Level Busts & Losses of Separation
2004 to end of July 2008
Click to enlarge
Source: NATS Division of Safety
The graphs show that since Jan 08 level bust reports have remained
more or less steady at about 450 – 460 reports in the
12 month
rolling total. Although this has been against a background of
traffic growth, the persistence of this error type confirms the need
for our continued focus on level busts. Our most serious event types
remain at the 3 count for 2008. All of these are identified as
foreign registered bizjets with an incorrect response to TCAS as
among the causal factors. This has been the reason for the focus on
TCAS by the UK Level Bust Working Group at its last meeting in May
and for the distribution of a TCAS document through this forum and
to the 47 airlines receiving quarterly level bust updates.
Additionally a separate TCAS working group and Bizjet workstreams
have been established within NATS.
NATS has been continuing its efforts with regards to maintaining the
momentum of communication and awareness through visits to BMI Group,
London Executive, EBACE (European Business Aircraft Conference &
Exhibition in Geneva) and Flybe; the latter visit allowing the
opportunity to present to a large forum of Flybe training captains
in Exeter. Wallcharts for a number of operators based on the level
bust incident data are being produced. Trend analysis (causal
factors, type, phase of flight, level, location etc) has also been
provided by way of update to several airlines. NATS has also
provided briefings to SRG Flt Ops inspectors and continues to liaise
closely with SRG Flt Ops with regards to level bust strategy.
The Level Bust Questionnaire continues to get good response rates,
and information made available through this medium is being
forwarded to unit investigators. The ‘Correct pilot readback
followed by incorrect action’ causal factor remains high. Also of
interest is the rise in the number of ‘Not Hear’ factors, which is
now the second most common causal factor ascribed in level bust
incident investigations.
Among technological developments, there has been a significant
amount liaison required with the Project delivering Electronic
Flight Data, in order to try and secure Mode S SFL / Cleared Flight
Level data comparison alerting. Work on this is ongoing.
The bars represent reported Level Busts – this is not the whole
story. The only statistics we are sure we capture
correctly are the Level Busts which cause a loss of separation.
We estimate that the number of reported Level Busts represents
approximately 30% of the actual number of Level Busts
During this campaign, we would like to see:
An INCREASE in the proportion of
level busts which are reported, we want all events to be reported because
we need to understand the full scale of the problem Level Busts resulting in a loss of
separation DECREASE
You will find articles and posters, which you
are welcome to use, as well as other information on Level Busts and
tips on how to avoid them.
If you have a comment about Level Busts, or
about this campaign, please e-mail us on the feedback form: every
piece of information, comment, or experience is very useful to us. We
are especially interested in which sector of the aviation industry you
are employed in. Please use the drop down box on the
feedback page to indicate this. Also, if
you'd like to be informed when this website is updated please tick the
box on the feedback form.
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