Facts, stats and incidents

2019 infringements

In January the Infringement Coordination Group provisionally suspended the licences of two pilots – one due to repeat infringements and one due to safety matters. An additional 21 pilots were referred to attend the Airspace Infringement Awareness Course.

Rob Gratton, CAA lead for airspace infringements, stated that the statistics show an unacceptable and continued rise in airspace infringements; a great many of those subject pilots are still not using moving map technology or failing to use it correctly. In addition, a number of infringements involved pilots encountering poor weather that was forecast in formal met reports, showing poor pre-flight planning and weak Threat and Error Management.

Infringement statistics: 2017 and 2018

Airspace infringements: 2018 statistics

Causal factor analysis of airspace infringements

Analysis of airspace infringement reports from 2017 has shown that that correct use of a moving map could have helped avoid 85% of airspace infringements.

Occurrence reports from private pilots were assessed against four key measures that could have helped prevent the infringement or reduced its impact on other air traffic or controllers:

• Use of moving maps with an airspace warning
• Use of a frequency monitoring code (FMC), also known as a listening squawk
• Recognition of/dealing with overload and distraction
• Better familiarity with aircraft and equipment

The report was carried out by a sub-group of the CAA’s Airspace Infringement Working Group, made up of three experienced General Aviation pilots.

• Read the full report: Causal Factor Analysis of Airspace Infringements 2017

Radar replays 

Infringement reports