Disciplinary threats, safety culture deficiencies or subtle commercial pressure on crew – the consequences of these issues could be nothing short of catastrophic. But all those are in the somewhat grey zone of occurrence reporting. Or not?

What many pilots don’t know is that there is a way to report those: through the Confidential Safety Reporting scheme of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This ‘CSR’ scheme is available for any European air crew (or other interested party) to blow the whistle on safety-relevant malpractices and irregularities.  

This CSR is a different reporting scheme, which goes further than the mandatory reporting schemes of airlines, national authorities or EASA, while it offers full confidentiality and protection of the reporter. 

Pilots can report alleged malpractices and irregularities in the field of aviation safety – those that have already happened, and even those "likely to occur" – all without fear. 

On EASA’s website you can find useful tips for putting together a such a report.

In addition to CSR reports, we strongly encourage all pilots, from all airlines and all European countries, to report all mandatory & voluntary issues which might impact safety.

Without safety reports, problems remain hidden and unresolved. 

Typical example of this is pilot fatigue. 

Filing a fatigue report after a long day and fatiguing duty is the last thing that a pilot wants to spent time on. Or on some occasions, it is even discouraged by your airline’s management. But without this information the problem of fatigue remains under the radar. It is your report that helps your airline’s safety department to assess fatigue, identify causes and trends, and to address the issue. 

Especially during this summer of disruption, it is crucial that you pilots report fatigue. We have a quick guide on writing a fatigue report here. 

Your reports matter!