Movement Area Safety to Be Ensured Even in Adverse Weather under Exceptional Circumstances

A Finnair Air­bus A350 de­part­ing on a cargo flight to Tokyo slid par­tially off a slip­pery taxi­way at Helsinki-Van­taa air­port in late af­ter­noon on Feb­ru­ary 21, 2021.

Airport winter maintenance staff had been cut by around fifty percent in late 2020 due to Covid 19 pandemic and decline in traffic.

An airport operator must ensure the safety of aircraft operations in the movement area under all circumstances or close portions of the movement area if necessary if safety cannot be assured. The threshold on movement area closure is currently too high due to flaws in the decision-making process. The safety of operations under difficult weather conditions must not be delegated exclusively to aircraft crews, says investigator-in-charge Janne Kotiranta.

The pandemic had led to significant changes in the operational environment, and responsibility for the management of the resulting organizational revamp had remained with the airport operator, which in turn led to deficiencies in risk assessment and in safety management.

Any major change in an operational environment brings to the fore the role of oversight executed by the aviation authority, which should proactively address any issues noted in the operators’ risk management. The usability criteria of the portions of the movement area should be reassessed in terms of maintenance requirements and procedures, aircraft speeds, and other variables, Administrative Director Hannamari Helke adds.

The probe into the incident also revealed that the aircraft’s flight recorders were not secured appropriately because the seriousness of the event was not understood, and no instructions for securing the cockpit voice recorder were available to the crew members. Securing of the voice recorder is essential for determining the causes of an event and for implementing subsequent safety actions.

The Safety Investigation Authority Finland issues three safety recommendations with the aim of preventing similar serious incidents and improving general safety. Finavia should establish unambiguous criteria and procedures to support decision-making for the closure of the movement area or portions thereof due to weather conditions, or for ensuring preconditions of their safe utilization. Two of the recommendations are addressed to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency. The agency should improve the oversight of aviation stakeholders in the event of rapid and significant changes that may occur in their domain and bolster aviation organizations’ self monitoring procedures. The agency should also ensure that securing of flight recorders is included in airlines’ operating procedures.

Further information:

Chief Safety Investigator Janne Kotiranta, tel. 02951 50703

Acting Director Hannamari Helke, tel. 02951 50713