There were a few countries (France, India and others) where some form of FDM was mandated in the 1990s, however most of the earlier airlines to use FDM were the large flag carriers who implemented their systems as a part of their individual efforts to improve air safety.

To the end of the 1990s, a resolution was passed at ICAO to introduce a requirement on all member states. As a result of this, from 2005 onwards there has been a significant adoption of FDM as a mandatory requirement is most countries of the world, with the notable exception of the USA where FOQA has been introduced as one of a number of voluntary safety initiatives.

The following extracts are from Amendment 26 to ICAO Annex 6 - Operation of Aircraft:

3.6.2 : Recommendation - From 1 January 2002, an operator of an aeroplane of a maximum certificated take-off weight in excess of 20,000kg should establish and maintain a flight data analysis program as part of its accident prevention and flight safety program.

3.6.3 : From 1 January 2005, an operator of an aeroplane of maximum certificated take-off weight in excess of 27,000kg shall establish and maintain a flight data analysis program as part of its accident prevention and flight safety program.

3.6.4 : A flight data analysis program shall be non-punitive and contain adequate safeguards to protect the source(s) of the data.

This section is currently under review, and may alter significantly to place emphasis upon the state to operate a Safety Management System as well as the aircraft operator.

The FAA regulations for FOQA are complex and written in legal terms, however this examinations guide is a far more readable document and recommended reading.

The FAA approach is quite prescriptive, and some operators may wish to implement FOQA in a way that better suits their organization and without adopting the I&O plan required by the FAA, in which case they can operate their voluntary process without adopting all these regulations.

Flight operational Quality Assurance Program; Final Rule Final Rule for Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) Programs. A new Subpart I was added to 14 CFR Part 13 which codifies enforcement protection for FOQA programs. This rule became effective November 30, 2001.

You can also find the complete rule and links to view the rulemaking process and comments here. Interestingly, the FAA state in the preamble to the Final Rule that "...it is anticipated that FOQA will be implemented on an industry wide basis in the U.S. within the next twenty years".

The UK CAA document on FDM, CAP739, is a good foundation document and is used by inspectors in the UK. This has subsequently been used as the basis for the other advisory material.

For normal humans, EU legislation is difficult to penetrate. The EASA web site even states that “EASA is not the competent authority to interpret EU Law” so what hope the rest of us? Please treat this guide as just that; a guide and not authoritative statements. With that warning in place, let me try to guide you through the maze.

The top level EU “Basic Regulation” is Regulation (EC) No 216/2008.

This is very high level and contains statements such as the regulation will…

“reflect the state of the art and the best practices in the field of air operations”.

There is no direct mention of FDM.

Down a level to the “Cover Regulation” and there are two sections covering aircrew and operations. The aircrew regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, was amended by Regulation (EU) No 290/2012, and has no reference to flight data.

The “Cover Regulation” relating to Air Operations is Regulation (EU) No 965/2012, which became applicable on 28/10/2012. Nevertheless, Member States have the flexibility to postpone the applicability of the rule by up to 2 years.

This Regulation has been termed the ‘Air OPS Regulation’, and is composed of the Cover Regulation (10 Articles) and five annexes. Of these, Annex III addresses the Organization Requirements for Air Operations (Part-ORO).

This regulation defines FDM:

Definition 46: ‘flight data monitoring (FDM)’ means the proactive and non-punitive use of digital flight data from routine operations to improve aviation safety

And, in Annex III the requirement is similar to the ICAO regulation:

ORO.AOC.130 Flight data monitoring — aeroplanes

(a) The operator shall establish and maintain a flight data monitoring system, which shall be integrated in its management system, for aeroplanes with a maximum certificated take-off mass of more than 27 000 kg.

(b) The flight data monitoring system shall be non-punitive and contain adequate safeguards to protect the source(s) of the data

Disappointingly, the ICAO recommendation for FDM on aircraft over 20 tons has been omitted from the EU regulation, and does not appear in the guidance material.

Acceptable Means of Compliance and Guidance Material. Another layer down in the process, in Annex to ED Decision 2012-017-R, we find the Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) to Part – ORO. This is where all the useful information about FDM can be found.

You will find lots of helpful material about how to set up and operate your processes, and the elements that your FDM system should have.

Right at the end of this section is GM2 ORO.AOC.130 which brings us full circle by stating that: “Additional guidance material for the establishment of flight data monitoring can be found in UK Civil Aviation Authority CAP 739 (Flight Data Monitoring)”.

There has been an amendment to the Cover Regulation introduced by Commission Regulation (EU) 800/2013. This amended some items relating to retention of FDR data.

The Short Answer:

FDM/FOQA is a safety tool. It provides information about flight safety issues to the operator.

The Longer Answer:

Accidents normally occur when a number of unfortunate events coincide. Imagine an accident where an aircraft ran off the end of the runway. This might be because the pilot landed faster than normal AND it was raining so the runway was slippery AND a malfunction caused the thrust reversers not to deploy. How can we stop an accident like this? By making sure that nothing that we can control contributes to the sequence of events.

Historically the "Black Box" flight recorder data has only been used after an accident, to find out why an accident occurred. With FDM/FOQA we look at the data on every flight to find if there are any preventable precursors to an accident.

In the imaginary case described above, we cannot prevent rain and slippery runways. We may not be able to prevent the malfunction of the thrust reverser, but if we can make sure that the pilots always land at the correct speed, the three-link chain leading to the accident would be broken.

The More Detailed Answer:

Flight data is analyzed from every flight and any moments when the aircraft is flying outside specific boundaries are identified. These are termed "events". There are severe events that should never occur, and it is the responsibility of the flight safety organization to address these with the pilot concerned. It is a foundation stone of FDM/FOQA that this is carried out in a non-punitive way, and to achieve this, the results are held in strict confidence.

At a lower level, there are a larger number of events that are only slightly outside normal operation, and we use statistical analysis to examine these for trends. Trends allow the flight safety organization to identify where they should address their actions, and can also focus their training programs.

Once an operator has taken action to reduce the chance of a problem recurring, FDM/FOQA data can show whether these actions have been effective, and whether they continue to be effective.

These are two acronyms for the same thing. Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) is more commonly used in the United States, and Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) elsewhere in the world. Just to add to the confusion, in some references the term Operational Flight Data Monitoring (OFDM) is also used to mean the same thing.

Enough acronyms? There is also a term MOQA, for Maintenance Operations Quality Assurance which is when maintenance issues are identified from flight data, but with no safety implications.

The first step to managing anything is to measure it. FDM/FOQA data provides measurements so that Flight Safety can be managed. Statistics show how your operation is performing compared with other similar organizations, and whether safety is improving or getting worse. FDM/FOQA data can also be used to direct your training activities. Rather than training for what you think are the risk areas, you can concentrate on the identified high risk areas. The outcome? More effective control of safety and more focused training.

FDM is specified as a requirement in Annex 6 of the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation for aircraft over 27 tons, and is recommended for aircraft over 20 tons.

This means each of the 189 countries belonging to ICAO has either to introduce this into national law, or file a derogation stating why they do not consider this to be a requirement in their country. At present the USA has made FDM/FOQA a voluntary program, but most other nations have introduced a legal requirement for FDM, or are working towards this position.

• You need a management commitment to flight safety from the very top of the organization.

• You need a flight safety department that is able to act independently yet with the confidence of the management.

• You need aircraft with a Flight Data Recorder.

• You need analysis expertise.

Ideally, you need a means of comparing the results you have with similar operators.

No; it is examined after a flight and for convenience many operators download once a week to fit in with maintenance schedules.

The most common ways are with a Quick Access Recorder that has some sort of removable media (disks or data cards). There are also wireless systems that transfer data after flight automatically. FDS can advise you about the best solution for your aircraft.

Analysis can be done by a department within an airline (in-house), or outsourced to a service provider. FDS is the world's largest provider of outsourced FDM/FOQA services, believing that outsourcing is the most cost effective method of carrying out FDM/FOQA, by reducing operator overheads of training and recruitment of personnel, leave and sickness cover, provision and maintenance of software and hardware, and the use of flight crew on the routine tasks of the FDM/FOQA process.

Powered by innovative Flight Data Connect technology, FDS's web-enabled service integrates seamlessly into existing Safety Management System.

Should you decide to do your own FDM/FOQA in house:

• You need a means of transferring data from the aircraft to the analysis software.

• You need analysis software, to the order of £31,000 - £61,000 ($50,000-$100,000) a copy.

• You need analyst expertise

There are four ways in which FDM/FOQA can save an operator money:

• You may save an accident.

• You may save money in engine trend costs, and possibly extend the life of the engine.

• You may save insurance costs. Most insurance companies will reduce rates if an operator can quantify their safety levels and demonstrate they are managing safety.

• You may save fuel costs. An intelligent fuel monitoring program can identify current practices in flight operations where fuel usage can be reduced.

Maintenance Operation Quality Assurance is the engineering equivalent of FDM/FOQA. The objective is to reduce operating costs through improved usage monitoring and reducing unnecessary maintenance.