Is our current certification process a threat to safety innovation?

Certification is an important process in the aviation industry. The certified status of aircraft, aircraft equipment and procedures is often regarded as a guarantee for safety. However, if shortcomings emerge during operation, this certified status can prevent improvement of the design. In addition, to develop and certify new equipment, it is often easier to modify existing, certified equipment than have a full certification of a new system. Doing so, safety problems may be overlooked. In this paper, a link is made between the certification process and organizational safety of both manufacturers of aircraft or aircraft equipment and airline companies.Control & Simulatio