FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine 
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute 

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-23/30

Title and Subtitle: Risk Framework for Cabin Transmission of Infectious Diseases

Report Date: September 2023

Authors: Andy Anderegg, Nadya Huleatt, Gene Lin, Ilana Lisann, Rakhee Palekar Hamid Shirazi, Alex Wu

Abstract: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has assumed leadership for developing a preparedness plan for communicable disease in air travel and identifying associated research needs. The FAA’s approach to the planning effort is to use its existing Safety Risk Management (SRM) process, as documented in FAA Order 8040.4B. The FAA will then use the SRM outputs as inputs to the preparedness planning activity, thereby making the latter risk-based and data-driven. The FAA tasked the MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development to develop a risk matrix suitable for use in a safety risk assessment evaluating communicable disease transmission risk in commercial air travel, specifically focusing on the gate-to-gate travel segment. To accomplish this tasking, MITRE investigated SRM process activities as documented in FAA Order 8040.4B applicable to disease transmission; interviewed relevant stakeholders; identified categories of likelihood and severity applicable to disease transmission; and used the transmission of seasonal influenza among air travel passengers to establish historically accepted societal risk thresholds. Through this method, MITRE has provided the FAA with a decision pathway to integrate data driven SRM for communicable disease transmission and to initiate preparedness planning activities.

Key Words: Safety Management Systems, Aeromedical Certification, Aviation Safety Risk Management, Communicable Disease

No. of Pages: 14