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Andre Roos

Aviation Risk Specialist · Accident Investigator · Underwriter · Expert Witness

Andre Roos

Aviation Risk. Accident Investigation. Insurance Expertise.

Bringing together aviation safety science, operational experience, insurance underwriting and accident investigation to understand risk before and after an event.

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Andre Roos
MSc Safety & Accident Investigation
Cranfield University Somerset West
South Africa
  • MSc Safety & Accident Investigation, Cranfield University
  • ISASI International Society of Air Safety Investigators
  • PPL Private pilot since 1997
  • Since 2018 Aviation Risk Specialist to South Africa's largest life insurer
  • SkyGuard Founder & Chief Executive

Why this combination matters

One specialist across the complete aviation risk lifecycle

Most aviation experts see one stage of a risk: the operator sees the flying, the underwriter sees the application, the investigator sees the wreckage, the lawyer sees the dispute. Andre has worked at every stage, which is why his assessment of a risk, a claim or a case accounts for all of them.

About Andre
  1. 01

    Identify

    Recognise operational risk before an accident, from logbooks, fleet data and the operating environment.

  2. 02

    Assess

    Evaluate pilots, aircraft, operations and environments as one interacting system.

  3. 03

    Underwrite

    Translate the assessment into defensible risk selection, pricing input and policy terms.

  4. 04

    Investigate

    Establish causation and contributing factors after an accident or claim, from the evidence.

  5. 05

    Testify

    Explain the findings to insurers, reinsurers and courts as an independent expert.

  6. 06

    Build

    Turn the method into technology: risk assessment models, flight data monitoring and SkyGuard.

Expertise

Specialist services for operators, insurers, reinsurers and legal teams

Risk methodology, operator assessment and advisory

Aviation Risk Assessment

Structured, evidence-based assessment of pilots, aircraft, operations and operating environments, for insurers, reinsurers, operators and financiers who need to understand an aviation exposure before they accept it.

  • Pilot assessment
  • Aircraft and machine risk
  • Operational risk
  • Territorial and environmental risk
Learn more Technical investigation and safety analysis

Aviation Accident Investigation

Independent, evidence-based investigation and analysis of aircraft accidents and serious incidents for insurers, operators, legal teams and families who need to understand what happened and why.

  • Accident causation analysis
  • Human factors
  • Aircraft performance and operational limits
  • Organisational and regulatory factors
Learn more Legal and insurance-related expert services

Expert Witness & Aviation Litigation

Independent expert reports, pre-litigation consultation and expert evidence in matters involving aviation accidents, aviation insurance disputes, pilot medical certification and the duties of insurance intermediaries.

  • Independent expert witness reports
  • Aviation insurance disputes
  • Claims causation
  • Accident reconstruction and analysis
Learn more Specialist insurance experience and risk selection

Aviation Insurance & Underwriting

Fifteen years of aviation life, disability, loss-of-licence and hull and liability underwriting experience, applied to product design, underwriting guidelines, reinsurance negotiation and claims.

  • Pilot life and disability insurance
  • Loss of licence and occupational disability
  • Aviation occupational and medical risk
  • Hull, liability and war risk
Learn more

Methodology

The dynamic interaction between risks

Developed from accident-investigation research and years of underwriting, Andre's advanced aviation risk assessment models hold that aviation risk cannot be understood by evaluating measures in isolation. It is the interaction between the risks that produces the exposure.

Dynamic interaction between risks Several risk dimensions arranged around a central exposure; lines between them show that risks interact, and the centre grows as more dimensions are elevated at once. RISK — R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6
Illustrative only · dimensions, weights and thresholds not disclosed

Principle

Risks interact; they do not add up

Move the sliders. Two moderately elevated risks are often more dangerous than one severe risk on its own, because each removes the margin the other depended on.

Explore the methodology

Research & Publications

Evidence first: the Cranfield thesis and a regular column on human factors

All publications
Article April 2026

Insurance That Does Not Wait for the Accident

SkyGuard Insights (skyguardglobal.com)

Argues that traditional aviation insurance — assess once, price, wait for the claim — was designed for a world of limited visibility, whereas flight data now makes risk observable while operations are under way. Proposes continuous telemetry monitoring with premiums that adjust within set limits according to how the aircraft is actually flown, plus feedback to operators on their own performance. Positions insurance as an active part of the safety system rather than a passive safety net.

Aviation InsuranceTechnology and Innovation
Read more Publisher ↗
Interview February 2026

Human Factor: Operational Blind Spot — When more data doesn't automatically mean better decisions (interview)

World Airnews

Six-page, sixteen-question interview by Judi Rodokanakis with Andre Roos of SkyGuard Global on how real-time flight data and predictive risk tools interact with human judgement, organisational culture and decision-making. Roos argues that information overload is a human-factors trap, that identified risk is pointless without an intervention pathway, that automation must remain a tool while human judgement stays the authority, and that leadership culture determines whether risk data makes anyone safer. Source text for his February–March 2026 LinkedIn articles and posts and the SkyGuard Insights post of 17 March 2026.

Expert CommentaryFlight Data MonitoringHuman Factors
Read more PDF Publisher ↗
Article October 2025

The "Impossible Turn": How Fight–Flight–Freeze (FFF) Makes a Bad Bet Worse

World Airnews

Examines why pilots attempt the low-altitude turnback after an engine failure on take-off, arguing that the stress response pushes pilots toward the manoeuvre and that online turnback experiments are flawed because none are flown under a real adrenal dump. Reviews FAA guidance and accident data, citing his Cranfield thesis finding of roughly 80% fatality in stall/spin turnbacks. Offers a pre-briefed EFATO script: Speed, Field, Fault, Flaps, Final.

Aviation SafetyHuman Factors
Read more PDF Publisher ↗
Article September 2025

The Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response in Aviation Emergencies: Why All Three Are Dangerous for Pilots

World Airnews

Opens with Roos's own in-flight engine failure at 1,300 ft and uses it to explain the adrenal surge behind the fight, flight or freeze response. Walks through the physiology (tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, loss of fine motor control) and shows why each reaction is dangerous in a cockpit. Closes with countermeasures: stress inoculation, visualisation, checklist discipline and CRM. First of a four-part series.

Human FactorsAviation Safety
Read more PDF Publisher ↗

SkyGuard & Innovation

Insurance that does not wait for the accident

Andre founded SkyGuard to apply his risk assessment models to live operational data. Flight data monitoring, analytics and underwriting discipline combine to identify changing risk and help operators correct it, rather than simply pricing the loss after it has happened.

The SkyGuard story skyguardglobal.com ↗

  • Flight Data Monitoring

    Fleet-wide telemetry compared against type and operation peers.

  • Dynamic risk assessment

    Risk reassessed as operations change, not once a year at renewal.

  • Behaviour-based underwriting

    How an aircraft is flown informs how it is priced.

  • Human judgement first

    Technology under direct, qualified human supervision.

Discuss an aviation risk, claim or case

Enquiries are treated in confidence. Initial consultations establish scope, independence and conflicts before any engagement.

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