On February 26, 2025 the Executive Director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Florian Guillermet and other representatives from the Agency met with the President and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, Dr Hasan Shahidi and key members of the foundation’s team in Cologne.
The meeting provided the opportunity for EASA to formally receive the Jerome Lederer Safety Leadership Medal for EASA’s Data4Safety (D4S) programme that brings together stakeholders from across Europe to collect and cooperatively analyse a massive amount of digital data and safety reports to identify systemic risks at the European Union level and to mitigate those risks. The award has been announced at the Foundation’s International Aviation Safety Summit (IASS) in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024.
Dr Shahidi handed over the award to Maria Rueda, EASA’s Safety Management, Sustainability and Global Outreach Director and Leopold Viroles the D4S Programme Manager.
The D4S project began with a feasibility study in 2015 and undertook a proof of concept phase from 2017 to 2022 before moving into the Development Phase in September 2022. This will run until 2026, when the objective is to transition the Programme to its long-term set-up (Operational phase).
The also included the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with both organisations committing to enhance their cooperation, by leveraging their respective resources to complement each other’s actions, and share information, with the aim to strengthen global aviation safety and ensure the best use of available resources.
The MoC committed to the following:
- Regular dialogue on safety-related matters,
- Exchange safety-relevant information and data (in full respect of ICAO Annex 19, Chapter 5 provisions and relevant EU rules);
- Promote our respective papers, study reports and safety promotion material;
- Participate in each other’s task forces, working groups, stakeholder advisory meetings, events, conferences, (as appropriate and in full respect of the governance and procedures of the relevant bodies);
- Foster the provision of training to each other’s staff;
- Establish and engage in joint training programmes and joint technical assistance activities;
- Promote regional cooperation and global safety initiatives.
