The UK CAA has released a video explaining how to submit a Mandatory Occurrence Report, more commonly referred to as an MOR. Despite being now outside the EU and EASA, the CAA still uses the same reporting platform, so this video is equally applicable to Irish pilots.
Ireland has one of the poorest reporting rates in General Aviation in Europe which has a direct impact on safety. Learning from other people’s mistakes is key, and without that feedback, it’s very difficult to learn. Sadly it’s only by reading AAIU accident reports that we learn but research shows that for every accident, there are many incidents that never become accidents. It’s these incidents that the MOR system aims to capture. With this data, mitigations can be put in place to adapt to the risks.
Anecdotal evidence would indicate that the incident category – ARC (Abnormal Runway Contact) is the biggest issue in GA in Ireland. I’m sure you all have experience of it, but have you ever reported it? This can include landing short of the runway, runway overruns, runway offsides, hard landings, bounces causing damage to the undercarriage etc. In most cases, the only damage is to your pride but if there was a lesson learned, surely this would be beneficial to other pilots too?
European legislation protects all reports under the Just Culture philosophy. The definition of Just Culture is: “A culture in which front-line operators or other persons are not punished for actions, omissions or decisions taken by them that are commensurate with their experience and training, but in which gross negligence, wilful violations and destructive acts are not tolerated”. This means that all reports will be treated fairly and actions will be treated as genuine mistakes. So unless you were doing something very illegal (‘gross negligence’), you cannot be prosecuted for submitting a report. Interestingly by not submitting a report – that can be classed as a wilful violation and you could be prosecuted.
Certain incidents require mandatory reporting such as near collisions, takeoff and landing incidents, technical failures etc. Other reports that fall outside of these definitions can be filed as a Voluntary Occurrence Report. It’s the same process for a MOR or VOR. Pages 9 to 11 of the regulation HERE gives the full list of what’s considered mandatory and voluntary.
If in doubt file it. For more information about Safety Reporting, take a look here.
