The Überlingen accident: Macro-level safety lessons

The 2002 mid-air collision over Überlingen killed 71 people. There is a responsibility to learn from such tragedies. The object here is to identify the 'macro-level' air traffic management (ATM) lessons from Überlingen. By macro is meant strategic, organisational, institutional and general policy issues. First, the main Überlingen events are summarised, together with the main conclusions that are generally inferred. Next, the key points from accident investigations and research studies are reviewed. These are the data for a macro-level critique of the results of these accident investigations and research study findings. This critique uses current thinking on technical methodologies addressing accident causation, risk estimation and explanatory reasoning. This next leads on to an examination of the involvement of Eurocontrol. The penultimate two sections cover 'Specific Macro-Level Safety Lessons' and 'General Macro-Level Safety Issues'. The final section is 'Key Points'.