An open safety management system characterizes the civil aviation sector. The opportunity to report incidents blame-free is the founding father of this system. Systematic analysis of blame-free reported incidents yields vital information for aviation safety. Feedback of this information to the professionals involved (e.g. pilots, technicians and air traffic controllers) is a prerequisite for maintaining a high level of safety in civil aviation. Decreasing confidence in the opportunity to report incidents blame-free, however, threatens the efficiency of the safety system. This decreasing confidence is the direct result of the increase in the number of criminal investigations of serious incidents and accidents in civil aviation. Why is it that this criminalization occurs increasingly and globally? And what can we do about it? To find these answers we have to look at how safety regulation is arranged in each sector in general and how safety regulation in the civil aviation community is arranged in particular, starting with the national governance regulation.
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