How to File an Occurrence Report in 72 Hours

The report is open

The occurrence report is open on the screen at ExampleMRO. Article 4 does not measure the reporter's time from the moment the event happened. It measures it from the moment the person becomes aware of the occurrence.

An engineer who identifies the occurrence during a scheduled inspection of MSN-EXAMPLE-014 becomes aware at that identification. That is the paragraph 7 clock. The persons themselves are quoted in EASA Occurrence Reporting: A Complete Guide for Aviation Professionals.

The organisation's 72 hours

The organisation's time limit is a different sentence from the person's. It is not an extra 72 hours added on after the person's 72 hours have run. Paragraphs 8 and 9 say who reports, to whom, and when that clock starts.

Paragraph 2 is the system those details come from.

Paragraph 8 is the organisation that paragraph 9 does not cover. Paragraph 9 is the organisation the Agency certifies or approves. Neither of those clocks is the voluntary report.

Who handles the report

Article 6 names who handles the details.

The handling in that paragraph is independent. The next paragraph is the permission for a small organisation, and it does not drop the confidentiality and protection rules.

What the report contains

Annex I — List of requirements applicable to the mandatory and voluntary occurrence reporting schemes · Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 · Easy Access Rules for Occurrence Reporting, 2023-09-27 revision

Note: The data fields must be completed with the information requested. If it is not possible for the competent authorities of the Member States or the Agency to include that information because it has not been provided by the organisation or the reporter, the data field may be completed with the value ‘unknown’. However, with a view to ensuring that the appropriate information is transmitted, use of that ‘unknown’ value should, to the best extent possible, be avoided, and the report should, where possible, be completed with the information later.

1. COMMON MANDATORY DATA FIELDS When entering, in their respective databases, information on every occurrence mandatorily reported and, to the best extent possible, every occurrence voluntarily reported, organisations, Member States and the Agency must ensure that occurrence reports recorded in their databases contain at least the following information: (1) Headline Headline (2) Filing Information Responsible Entity File Number Occurrence Status (3) When UTC Date (4) Where State/Area of Occurrence Location of Occurrence (5) Classification Occurrence Class Occurrence Category (6) Narrative Narrative Language Narrative (7) Events Event Type (8) Risk classification

The unknown value in that note is not a way for the reporter to close a report that is still empty.

Annex I continues after those common fields. The further fields are in the Easy Access Rules; they are not copied here.

Data quality

A clear account can be flattened, or stored against the wrong category, on the way into the database. A report under the wrong occurrence category does not surface in a search for the right one.

The category and the event type chosen at entry are the fields later readers use to find the same pattern.

On the day

An engineer at ExampleMRO becomes aware, during a scheduled inspection of MSN-EXAMPLE-014, of an occurrence the organisation is going to report under its mandatory system. The paragraph 7 clock starts at that awareness. The engineer files into the organisation's system. The person designated under Article 6 handles the details. The organisation uses paragraph 8 or paragraph 9, whichever of those sentences applies to it.

Avioverse's occurrence lookup helps inspect ECCAIRS fields and values. The lookup does not choose the occurrence category or the event type. The person preparing the report checks those against the event.

The 72 hours, the independent handling and the data-quality check do not decide what happens to someone who reported an honest mistake. That is the next guide, Just Culture and Reporter Protection in Occurrence Reporting.