Much to the unhappiness of aviation safety advocates and government regulators, four U.S. air carriers have pulled out of the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP), a safety project credited with helping to lower accident rates.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Comair and US Airways no longer have in-house programs that encourage pilots to come forward and report their own mistakes without fear of being punished. ASAP has helped airlines and regulators uncover scores of potentially dangerous situations and make fixes before tragic results.
ASAP must have the backing of pilot unions, air carriers and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Pilot unions allege that air carriers have used ASAP data to punished pilots who voluntarily disclosed problems, a charge air carriers deny.
The latest ASAP defector is US Airways, whose pilots are represented by the US Airline Pilots Association. The union alleges “mismanagement of critical immunity provisions.”
USAPA believes US Airways’ insistence on diluting (immunity) provisions has rendered them effectively useless.
“We are extremely disappointed that our patient attempts with management to protect the integrity of this valuable safety program have failed to produce cooperation. We are left with no choice but to allow the program to lapse. USAPA is committed to a proactive safety mindset. As a component of that effort, we cannot tolerate a dilution of the essential protective provisions that other effective safety reporting programs incorporate,” said Steve Bradford, President of USAPA.
“We are troubled by the deteriorating state of labor/management relations that failed to produce any movement on these issues despite repeated extensions of the agreement meant to provide opportunity for teamwork.”
USAPA noted that NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is still in place, allowing pilots and other aviation personnel an avenue to voluntarily report any safety issues they witness.
In a recent speech, FAA acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell called the breakdown “disheartening”.
Bill Voss, head of the Flight Safety Foundation, said: “There has been another threat to these safety reporting systems that is more difficult to grasp. In the U.S., we have had cases of FOQA (Flight Quality and Operations Assurance) and ASAP systems being terminated during labor negotiations. There are at least two sides to every story, but I couldn’t care less about either. Safety systems do not belong on the bargaining table. Management and labor have to resist using these systems as a bargaining chip both publicly and privately. There is simply no excuse.”
The FSF also support statutory protection against the release or use of information gathered by voluntary aviation self-disclosure reporting programs. The call comes in the wake of recent judicial decisions forcing disclosure of voluntarily supplied aviation safety information, and the use of aviation accident investigation reports in civil litigation and criminal prosecutions.
“We can and must do everything possible to ensure the continued flow of critical safety information that is increasingly coming under assault in courts around the world, ” said FSF President and CEO William R. Voss.
FSF General Counsel Kenneth P. Quinn notes the increasing tendency to criminalize aviation accidents. “Since prosecutors and courts are not protecting the confidentiality of voluntarily supplied safety information, legislatures need to step in to prevent critical sources of safety data from drying up.” FSF endorses the creation of a “qualified exception” from discovery of voluntary self-disclosure reporting programs, similar to the protection already provided in U.S. law against use of cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and surface vehicle recordings and transcripts.
The Allied Pilots Association (representing the American Airlines pilots) and the Air Line Pilots Association (representing Delta and Comair pilots) also allowed their participation in the ASAP to expire.
In the United States, more than 70 airlines participate in the FOQA and ASAP flight quality monitoring programs.