Alignment of Aviation Safety Taxonomies and Event Types in STAMP

Aviation safety taxonomies are the sets of terms on which occurrence reporting systems are based today. Since occurrences in aviation are one of the main sources for aviation safety, taxonomies are used to capture as much detail as possible from an occurrence. On the basis of taxonomies, overviews are regularly created for certain periods. Currently, a systemic approach to safety is increasingly being applied in the domain. The System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) is one of the systemic safety models that can analyze and investigate complex systems. However, with its introduction into full operation, major changes could arise. One such change would certainly be focused on the currently used aviation safety taxonomies, such as the European Co-ordination Centre for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS). In this respect, the goal of this paper is to propose an alignment of the ECCAIRS taxonomy with STAMP, with a focus on event types. The methodology, together with the results, detail the alignment design and validation. The resulting proposal shows how the ECCAIRS taxonomy could support STAMP-based occurrence data processing and, at the same time, it brings new insights that could help to structure the taxonomy in the future.