Structuring a Safety Case for an Air Traffic Control Operations Room

Abstract

Production of a formal safety case is a valuable part of the safety management of a safety related system. A safety case is a written justification that the given system will be tolerably safe during installation, commissioning and operation, and in some cases decommissioning. A well-written safety case will give all stakeholders (operating authority, members of staff and regulators) justifiable confidence that the system is safe to operate and to continue in operation. Although production of a safety case is now regarded as best practice in many quarters, there is still relatively little experience of writing safety cases and only a limited amount of literature on the topic. Many safety engineers find it a daunting task and some safety cases are still poorly structured, difficult to understand and less than compelling.