Principles inherent in the line operations safety audit (LOSA) program — typically used on the flight line — can be applied to aviation maintenance and ramp operations to identify conditions that might lead to an incident or accident, a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report says.
“The hazards that threaten the safety of flight deck operations are not unique to that environment,” said the report, issued in September by the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine.1 “Similar problems are present during maintenance and ramp operations.”
LOSA traditionally has been used to gather safety data during routine airline operations. The program had its roots in a Delta Air Lines effort to assess the operational effects of a three-day crew resource management (CRM) training course.
“Analysts soon realized that existing data collection methods did not assemble adequate information regarding flight crew adherence to standard operating procedures and environmenta…
