After three years of joint effort, EASA, FAA, ANAC, and TCCA have released a landmark report about 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗘𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝘀 (𝗖𝗠𝗘𝘀) in development of flight-critical systems.
💡 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲?
While certification regulations all agree catastrophic failure must not result from a single failure, inconsistent interpretations of development errors—mistakes in requirements, design, or implementation—have caused long-standing inefficiencies in cross-authority validation and safety assurance.
🔍 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
A multi-authority Task Specific Team (TST) was formed to harmonize understanding, expectations, and compliance methods around CMEs. Their newly published framework:
• Clarifies the compliance intent for development errors under CS/FAR 25.1309.
• Defines the complementary roles of error minimization (via disciplined development practices) and error tolerance (via architecture, independence, monitoring).
• Proposes a systematic methodology to identify, assess, mitigate, and document CME risks, with flexibility for real-world design constraints.
✅ Key benefits:
• Greater consistency in certification expectations.
• Reduced delays in validation for global projects.
• Encouragement to embed CME resilience early in design via meaningful and feasible mitigations.
🚀 The report aligns with industry standards like ARP4761A/ED-135 and sets a foundation for more proactive collaboration between applicants and authorities.
🔧 While this framework focuses on development errors, the report also flags the growing relevance of manufacturing errors and recommends future harmonization efforts there.

For engineers, safety assessors, and compliance teams, this is essential reading and can be found in https://lnkd.in/dbX9cVGU