AIM
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Safety, Accident, and Hazard Reports
Section 6. Safety, Accident, and Hazard Reports
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1. Aviation Safety Reporting Program
a.
The FAA has established a voluntary Aviation
Safety Reporting Program designed to stimulate the
free and unrestricted flow of information concerning
deficiencies and discrepancies in the aviation system.
This is a positive program intended to ensure the
safest possible system by identifying and correcting
unsafe conditions before they lead to accidents. The
primary objective of the program is to obtain
information to evaluate and enhance the safety and
efficiency of the present system.
b.
This cooperative safety reporting program
invites pilots, controllers, flight attendants, mainte-
nance personnel and other users of the airspace
system, or any other person, to file written reports of
actual or potential discrepancies and deficiencies
involving the safety of aviation operations. The
operations covered by the program include departure,
en route, approach, and landing operations and
procedures, air traffic control procedures and
equipment, crew and air traffic control communica-
tions, aircraft cabin operations, aircraft movement on
the airport, near midair collisions, aircraft mainte-
nance and record keeping and airport conditions or
services.
c.
The report should give the date, time, location,
persons and aircraft involved (if applicable), nature
of the event, and all pertinent details.
d.
To ensure receipt of this information, the
program provides for the waiver of certain
disciplinary actions against persons, including pilots
and air traffic controllers, who file timely written
reports concerning potentially unsafe incidents. To be
considered timely, reports must be delivered or
postmarked within 10 days of the incident unless that
period is extended for good cause. Reports should be
submitted on NASA ARC Forms 277, which are
available free of charge, postage prepaid, at FAA
Flight Standards District Offices and Flight Service
Stations, and from NASA, ASRS, PO Box 189,
Moffet Field, CA 94035.
e.
The FAA utilizes the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) to act as an
independent third party to receive and analyze reports
submitted under the program. This program is
described in AC 00−46, Aviation Safety Reporting
Program.
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2. Aircraft Accident and Incident
Reporting
a. Occurrences Requiring Notification.
The
operator of an aircraft must immediately, and by the
most expeditious means available, notify the nearest
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Field
Office when:
1.
An aircraft accident or any of the following
listed incidents occur:
(a)
Flight control system malfunction or
failure.
(b)
Inability of any required flight crew
member to perform their normal flight duties as a
result of injury or illness.
(c)
Failure of structural components of a
turbine engine excluding compressor and turbine
blades and vanes.
(d)
Inflight fire.
(e)
Aircraft collide in flight.
(f)
Damage to property, other than the
aircraft, estimated to exceed $25,000 for repair
(including materials and labor) or fair market value in
the event of total loss, whichever is less.
(g)
For large multi-engine aircraft (more than
12,500 pounds maximum certificated takeoff
weight):
(1)
Inflight failure of electrical systems
which requires the sustained use of an emergency bus
powered by a back-up source such as a battery,
auxiliary power unit, or air-driven generator to retain
flight control or essential instruments;
(2)
Inflight failure of hydraulic systems
that results in sustained reliance on the sole remaining
hydraulic or mechanical system for movement of
flight control surfaces;
(3)
Sustained loss of the power or thrust
produced by two or more engines; and
(4)
An evacuation of aircraft in which an
emergency egress system is utilized.