Safety performance indicators assessment for small aircraft airframe systems

Safety performance indicators are the parameters used for monitoring and assessing safety performance. Such factors are determined based on available safety databases, collected on government level (in Poland Civil Aviation Authority) or by aircraft operators. Aircraft system failure during different flight phases can cause an accident or an incident. Polish Civil Aviation Authority between other data bases manages two important ones called: European Coordination Centre for Aviation Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS) and Aircraft Continuing Airworthiness Monitoring (ACAM).General Aviation (GA) operates mainly aircraft with MTOM<5700 kg powered by the single piston engine. At present, reliability of GA aircraft systems in Poland is unknown. Increasing size of this fleet in Poland requires taking necessary measures in order to establish safety risks and safety performance targets for GA fleet. The authors have performed processing of the data included in available databases analysing airframe failures based on criteria like: phases of flight, ATA chapters concerning aircraft systems and the category of occurrence. The goal of this article is to present method of the current reliability of GA aircraft systems assessment. The results of this analysis can support the decisions of supervisory authorities in the areas where security threats are most important also can help production organizations in identification of the aircraft systems, which required design changes.