EASA Part-CAT.GEN.MPA.195 mandates Flight Data Monitoring for all aircraft above 27,000 kg MTOW operated under commercial air transport rules. Operators must analyse downloaded quick access recorder data within prescribed timeframes, flag exceedances against operator-defined thresholds, and route findings to a designated FDM specialist reporting to the safety review board.
Exceedance Categories and Thresholds
Typical Category A events include high rate of descent below 1,000 feet AGL, glideslope deviations exceeding one dot, and bank angles above 35 degrees on approach. Category B captures unstable approach criteria such as final-flap configuration beyond 1,000 feet, IAS above Vref+20 below 500 feet, or thrust below idle inside 50 feet. Each carrier sets its own thresholds inside the EUROCONTROL Flight Data Exchange framework.
OEM and Third-Party Analysis Tools
Airbus AirFASE and Boeing AHM dominate widebody analysis, while Teledyne’s Replay and Flightscape’s Insight platforms cover narrowbody operators. CEFA AMS reconstructs 3D animations from FDM data for crew debrief, increasingly deployed across European LCCs like Wizz Air and easyJet for visual feedback. Lufthansa Aviation Training centres run regular FDM workshops alongside line check ride preparation.
Trend Analysis and Safety Outcomes
Operators feed the de-identified data into ECAST’s pan-European database, allowing fleet-wide benchmarking of approach gates and runway excursion precursors. IATA’s STEADES system aggregates voluntary safety reports against the FDM signal, and the convergence of both streams underpins EASA’s Annual Safety Recommendation tracker. Carriers that maintained robust FDM programmes through the 2020-2022 traffic dip reported substantially fewer Category A exceedances on resumption compared with peers without the discipline.