Military aviation typically is not a focus area for Flight Safety Foundation or AeroSafety World. While there are some military variants of civilian aircraft operating with armed forces around the world, the operating tempos, equipment types and mission profiles generally are very different between commercial and military operations.
Still, the collection and analysis of accident and incident data are crucial to improving safety in any aviation domain, so I was intrigued with a report published in mid-August by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
In its report, which is detailed in this issue of ASW (see “Military SDCPS”), GAO said it found gaps in the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) approach to collecting, reporting and analyzing military aviation mishap data. One of the GAO findings said the various branches of the U.S. military do not collect standardized mishap data despite various policies and agreements with the Office of the Secretar…
