Aviation Safety Reporting System

NASA initiated and implemented this important human-based safety program in 1976 at the request of the FAA. Its importance can best be judged by the fact it is still in full operation—funded by the FAA and managed by NASA. The Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) col­lects information voluntarily and confidentially submitted by pilots, controllers, and other aviation professionals. This information is used to identify deficiencies in the National Aviation System (NAS), some of which include those of the human participants themselves. The ASRS analyzes these data and refers them in the form of an "alerting message” to the appropriate agencies so that problems can be corrected. To date, nearly 5,000 alert messages have been issued.[377] The ASRS also educates through its operational issues bulletins, its newsletter CALLBACK and its journal ASRS Directline, as well as through the more than 60 research studies it has published.[378] The massive database that the ASRS main­tains benefits not only NASA and the FAA, but also other agencies world­wide involved in the study and promotion of flight safety. Perhaps most importantly, this system serves to foster further aviation human fac­tors safety research designed to prevent aviation accidents.[379] After more than 30 years in operation, the ASRS has been an unqualified success. During this period, pilots, air traffic controllers, and others have pro­vided more than 800,000 reports.[380] The many types of ASRS responses to the data it has collected have triggered a variety of safety-oriented actions, including modifications to the Federal Aviation Regulations.[381]

It is impossible to quantify the number of lives saved by this impor­tant long-running human-based program, but there is little dispute that its wide-ranging effect on the spectrum of flight safety has benefitted all areas of aviation.