Rising satellite interference highlights need for tech backup in air travel

Smart tech and human skill key to future air travel safety, IATA saysThe International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called for stronger integration of people, technology and global standards to improve aviation safety, as its director of safety, Mark Searle, outlined priorities at a conference. Speaking at the opening of the IATA World Safety and Operations Conference, Searle said fatal accident rates had improved from one accident per 3.5 million flights to one per 5.6 million over the past decade. However, 2025 still saw 394 lives lost in aviation accidents. “Every fatality strengthens our resolve to do better,” he said, adding that “the next advance in safety will come from people, technology, and standards working together better as one resilient system”. To sustain safety performance as a new generation of aviation professionals enters the workforce, IATA identified three priorities. First, structured knowledge transfer through mentoring, training and succession planning would preserve operational expertise. Alongside that, combining experience with new capabilities would bring experienced professionals’ knowledge together with the digital skills and artificial intelligence (AI) fluency of a new generation. Finally, protecting safety culture means maintaining an environment where people can report hazards, errors and near misses without fear, allowing the industry to learn and prevent future incidents. Searle said the industry had spent decades building “something genuinely rare, a positive safety culture in which people report their own errors, and mistakes become opportunities for everyone to learn from”. As one generation moves on, he said, it was critical that the next build on that work. On technology, IATA said new tools, including AI, should help safety professionals understand what is happening and make better decisions, while allowing operations to remain safe if the technology is unavailable or compromised. Searle said technology could help identify risks earlier and prompt action before an incident became an accident, but “technology alone is never enough”. In particular, rising Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference showed why technology must be supported by redundancy, procedures, training and human judgement. On standards, the strong safety performance of airlines on the IOSA registry demonstrates the value of common global standards backed by effective oversight. IATA said many of aviation’s biggest safety challenges stem from inconsistent implementation and oversight, rather than a lack of standards. Searle said that “The next step change in safety will not come from writing more standards. It will come from making sure the standards we already have are understood, implemented and overseen consistently, everywhere.” IATA called for oversight resources to focus on areas of greatest risk, stronger State compliance with international obligations on conflict-zone risk information and accident reporting, and updated requirements that reflect changes in technology, operations and regulation. Ultimately, Searle said, people, technology and standards must reinforce one another across issues including runway safety, GNSS interference, conflict zones and accident investigations. “When one of these pillars is weak, the resilience of the entire system is reduced,” he concluded.