Reports
Toward Risk Prediction and Mitigation
FAA Is Taking Steps to Improve Data, but Challenges for Managing Safety Risks Remain
Gerald L. Dillingham, Ph.D., director, physical infrastructure issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives. GAO-12-660T. April 25, 2012. 20 pp. www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-660T.
Like the U.S. aviation industry itself, its regulator, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is shifting its emphasis away from “backward-looking” data — such as analysis of accidents — and toward risk prediction and mitigation strategies. Since 1998, as part of that new principle, the FAA has partnered with the airlines in the Commercial Aviation Safety Team to identify “sleeping” precursors to accidents and root them out before they cause mischief. Such an approach must be heavily…
