Various symbols on white background (e.g. hearts) - meant to signify humanitarian assistance

Providing Humanitarian (Family / Special etc.) Assistance to:

Air Accident Victims + their associated Family, Relatives & Friends

Background

A strong degree of compulsion exists ‘today’ – requiring all those involved at the sharp end of certain aviation related operations, to make adequate provision (plans, resources [including people and money], training, exercising etc.) for providing humanitarian (family / special etc.) assistance to aircraft accident victims (latter having been on-board a particular accident flight) – together with associated family, relatives & friends (latter NOT having been on-board that [same] particular flight) of all such victims

The term ‘sharp end‘ typically (but not exclusively) refers to passenger carrying airlines, commercial airports, ground handling operators etc. It also includes individual countries (States) which belong to the United Nations i.e. just about every country in the world. More specifically, we are talking ‘governments’ etc. here – and even more specifically, Ministries of Transport / Civil Aviation Authorities / Emergency Services / equivalent organisations etc.

The term ‘humanitarian (family / special etc.) assistance’ (as used herein) should be interpreted in the widest possible context. Strategically, it refers to the saving of life, alleviation of suffering, provision of information and maintenance of human dignity – typically as related to one or other form of disaster / major crisis / equivalent event (natural or man-made) – including the ‘catastrophic (mass fatality) aircraft accident / aviation disaster’ type scenario (latter is, of course, what this webpage and website is all about)

The term ‘aircraft accident victim‘ as used herein refers to all persons who were (or had been) on board an accident flight – together with those on the ground (termed herein ‘ground victims‘), if any, who might have been killed, injured and / or otherwise traumatised etc. – as a direct consequence of the accident aircraft (or part of the aircraft) hitting the ground (or equivalent circumstance)

The term ‘associated Family, Relatives and Friends‘ as used herein refers to those persons potentially having some form of ‘valid’ relationship with aircraft accident victims i.e. they (Family, Relatives & Friends) are (were) NOT (would not have been) on board the accident flight NOR do (did) they meet the definition of  ‘ground victim’ (as per the last para above). Nevertheless, they (identified and / or potential Family, Relatives and Friends) will be considered herein to have some form of valid relationship with regard to such aircraft accident / ground victims e.g. as family; as a relative; as a friend; as an emergency contact person etc. This consideration will apply unless valid facts, evidence etc. indicates otherwise

What is the ‘Compulsion’?

ICAO

The ‘compulsion’ relates to the need for most airlines, airports, ground handlers (and several other [generic] aviation related organisations e.g. flight training organisations; aircraft maintenance and repair organisations etc.) to comply with something known as the ‘ICAO Safety Management System (SMS). The latter has been established in accordance with the associated requirements of the appropriate United Nations body – i.e. the ‘International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO). A component of ICAO’s SMS relates to aviation related ’emergency response planning’ – a sub-component of which relates to the provision of ‘humanitarian (family) assistance‘ – as already referred to further above

Further ICAO advances (improvements) re ‘humanitarian assistance‘ are described in ICAO Docs 9973 and 9998together with the associated, international Standard and Recommended Practice (ICAO Annex 9 [Facilitation], Ch 8, Paras 8.47 and 8.48 respectively refer)

(For more details re ICAO Docs 9973 and 9998 click HERE. When the associated web-page opens, scroll down the list of ‘information articles’ shown until you find the one entitled ‘…………. Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims & their Families –  [ICAO Docs 9973 & 9998]………….‘. Click on the required document to open and read

For more details re the ICAO ‘Standard‘ and ‘Recommended Practice‘ mentioned a little further above – follow the same link (as per last para immediately above) and find (its at the top of the list which opens) the information article entitled ‘………….. ICAO Annex 9, Ch 8, Paras 8.42 to 8.48 Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims & their Families ………….‘. Click on the title to open and read (clauses 8.47 and 8.48 refer)

Unfortunately, many years will pass before ‘most’ of the world’s countries (+ their appropriate aviation related organisations etc.) will be fully ‘compliant’ with the above

(For example – the European Union [EU] passed a [compulsory compliance] regulation in late 2010 requiring all of its member countries [28 of them at that time] to address the aviation related humanitarian [family] assistance type requirements then existing + their future evolutions. As at early 2024 it is thought that the only 3 countries to had done so were Spain, Italy and the Netherlands [and even then the latter {Netherlands} was ‘forced’ so to do – in response to adverse, public etc. feedback / criticism of the Dutch ‘lack of appropriate action’ – following the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014 {around 68% of MH17’s PAX were Dutch}]

Note: If anyone reading this example is aware of any other [additional] EU countries that are now so compliant, the author of this website would be most grateful to be advised of same accordingly. This can be done via this website’s ‘Contact‘ page)

Individual Countries

For a number of reasons a small number of countries had unilaterally legislated / regulated etc. on the subject of ‘Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims & their Families’ – some years before ICAO became meaningfully involved. The first to do so was the United States in the mid-1990s. Almost a quarter of a century later only around 36 more more countries had done likewise. Unfortunately, only about 12 of the latter had (as at 2022) actually implemented such provision to a greater or lesser degree i.e. some very well……………and some not so well. This still left around 184 countries which had (up to that same time) done absolutely nothing to address this vital matter

Can we be of Assistance?

Referring to an appropriate extract from ICAO Doc 9973:

…………………… 6.48 – There are several ways to tackle the drafting of an (humanitarian) assistance plan, including by: a) engaging consultants to prepare a plan after all interested parties have decided on etc ……………………

* Whilst the AERPS consultant (author / owner of the website you are now looking at) is of the informed opinion that a competent and dedicated (i.e. having no other role within the airline, airport etc.) ’emergency / crisis response planning manager’ etc. could properly prepare such a plan, provided adequate time, co-operation, resources, guidelines etc. are provided / made available for the purpose – the vast majority of small to medium sized airlines (and many of the larger ones too!) simply cannot / do not meet this requirement. (Similar applies to airports; ground handling operators etc.)

* This is typically due to there being no such manager in place or, where there is, he / she is more than likely to also / additionally be undertaking a concurrent (additional) role such as ‘safety manager’, ‘quality manager’, ‘compliance manager’ and similar. Consequently, there is typically insufficient time / opportunity available to run both jobs adequately – and it is usually the emergency response planning role which suffers. Many readers ‘in the know’ will well recognise this situation!

* By way of contrast, the AERPS consultant does have the proven competence and experience, together with the time and resources – to produce such an effective humanitarian (family) assistance plan – whether it be for airlines, airports, GHAs or even entire countries / states

* Furthermore such plan would be completed in at least half the time (and probably even quicker) than could be achieved by the average ’emergency response planning manager’ – and also considerably quicker than any other consultant / consulting company e.g. all of the documentation (manuals, plans, checklists etc.) required are already available (i.e. right now – today) in generic / template format – simply requiring customisation to the client’s particular requirements and circumstances

* As always in our consultancy work, if a customer is not happy with the final result (with good reason of course) the consultant will waive payment of his professional fees. A reminder also that our consultancy fees are typically significantly lower than all of our competitors

Humanitarian (Family) Assistance Plan – FREE Preparation Guideline

We have produced a very comprehensive guideline document re the pre-planning for and subsequent provision of humanitarian (family) assistance services during an ‘aviation disaster’ type response. The guideline is airline oriented but will also be found useful for fairly simple adaptation by GHAs, aviation ‘authorities’ etc. You can access this FREE document by clicking HERE

A similar guideline for airports is also available. This FREE document can be found by clicking HERE. When the latter opens, refer to Appendix Y

Please do make contact if you feel that you can make use of our services in any of the areas shown above

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