Mandatory and Voluntary Incident Reporting
Incident Reporting Saves Lives! It is critically important that all injuries and accidents, including near misses, are reported so that the causes can be determined and the risk eliminated. Reporting hazards helps prevent additional injuries and increases safety. Making an Incident Report isn't difficult, and we are here to help.
Mandatory Incident Reporting
There are several different Dangerous Goods Mandatory (REQUIRED) Incident Reports:
- Hazardous Materials Incident Report
- Immediate Notice of certain hazardous materials incidents. (As soon as practical but no later than 12 hours)
- Detailed Hazardous Materials Incident Report. (Within 30 Days of discovery)
- Discrepancy Reports Involving Passenger Baggage
- Discrepancy Reports Involving Cargo
(a) Immediate notice of certain hazardous materials incidents
When and how do I report a Hazardous Materials or Dangerous Goods Incident?
The Hazardous Materials Regulations (49 CFR 171.15 and 171.16) require you to report certain types of hazardous materials or dangerous goods incidents. Incident reports are vital to transportation safety. The report data allows regulatory organizations to identify trends and emerging safety risks, helps to prioritize resources based on risk, and to identify repeat shippers of undeclared dangerous goods.
Immediate notice of certain hazardous materials or dangerous goods incidents
You are required to submit an immediate notice as soon as practical but no later than 12 hours after the occurrence to the National Response Center (NRC) when any of the following incidents occur in transportation, including loading, unloading, and temporary storage:
- A person is killed
- A person receives an injury requiring admittance to a hospital
- The general public is evacuated for one hour or more
- A major transportation artery or facility is shutdown or closed for more than an hour
- The operational flight pattern of an aircraft is altered
- Radioactive contamination occurs
- Suspected contamination from an infectious substance (other than regulated medical waste) occurs
- A release of a marine pollutant in excess of 450L (119 gallons) for a liquid or 400 kg (882 lbs.) for a solid
- During transportation by aircraft, a fire, violent rupture, explosion or dangerous evolution of heat (i.e., an amount of heat sufficient to be dangerous to packaging or personal safety to include charring of packaging, melting of packaging, scorching of packaging, or other evidence) occurs as a direct result of a battery or battery-powered device
You can make immediate notices to the National Response Center (NRC) by telephone at 800-424-8802 (toll free) or 202-267-2675 (toll call).
(b) Detailed Hazardous Materials Incident Report (DOT Form F 5800.1)
Air Carriers are required to file a Form F 5800.1 (PDF) with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) for incidents that occur during commercial transportation of hazardous material or dangerous goods (loading, unloading, and temporary storage), under 49 CFR 171.16:
- Any of the circumstances listed above which require immediate notice
- An unintentional release of a hazardous material or the discharge of any quantity of hazardous waste
- When a specification cargo tank with a capacity of >1000 gallons is structurally damaged
- An undeclared hazardous material is discovered during transportation
- A fire, violent rupture, explosion or dangerous evolution of heat (i.e., an amount of heat sufficient to be dangerous to packaging or personal safety to include charring of packaging, melting of packaging, scorching of packaging, or other evidence) occurs as a direct result of a battery or battery-powered device.
For air incidents, copies of the F 5800.1 (PDF) report must be submitted to the FAA. Submit a copy of the F 5800.1 report to the FAA by emailing 9-AWA-AXH-Air5800-1Reports@faa.gov.
In accordance with 49 CFR 175.31, air carriers must notify the FAA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety of the following passenger-related discrepancies as soon as practicable:
- Checked or carry-on baggage found to contain unauthorized dangerous goods (i.e. Undeclared hazardous materials or hazmat). NOTE: Exceptions for passengers, crewmembers, and air operators are provided in 49 CFR 175.10.
- Undeclared dangerous goods discovered in passenger baggage are excepted from the incident reporting requirements in 49 CFR 171.16 and only need to be reported as discrepancies under 49 CFR 175.31.
To report discrepancies by phone, call the office listed under the Compliance and Safety Resolution Contacts nearest your location.
To electronically report dangerous goods discovered in passenger's checked or carry-on baggage to FAA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety:
- Operators can email reports to 9–AWA-AXH-175-31PaxNotifications@faa.gov.
- Operators can report passenger discrepancies to the FAA utilizing the SAS External Portal by visiting https://sas.faa.gov/sas.external.portal/ext/accounts/signup/pax. An account is not required, and CAPTCHA is used for a one-time session. Two methods are available:
- Using text and dropdown fields, users enter and submit the details for each passenger discrepancy. The user can submit multiple records in one session.
- The user downloads a predefined Excel template, completes the text and dropdown fields, and uploads the Excel sheet to the SAS External Portal. The user can submit multiple records within the Excel sheet.
- Using text and dropdown fields, users enter and submit the details for each passenger discrepancy. The user can submit multiple records in one session.
- Operators can report passenger discrepancies using a RESTful Web API service. This automates the reporting of passenger discrepancies between the operator and FAA. Operators will need to invoke two RESTful web services from their systems—one to request authorization and one to submit the actual discrepancies. In order to use this Web API, the operator is required to have an approved and active external user account with FAA. This is a two-step process which involves authentication and authorization for reporting discrepancies. Both request and response data will be in JSON format. Carriers interested in exploring this option should contact their assigned FAA Principal Hazardous Materials Aviation Safety Inspector
In accordance with 49 CFR 175.31, air carriers must notify the FAA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety of the following cargo-related discrepancies as soon as practicable:
- Dangerous goods that are improperly described, certified, labeled, marked, or packaged, in a manner not ascertainable when accepted.
- Packages discovered to contain dangerous goods, subsequent to being offered and accepted as other than dangerous goods.
- Air carriers must report undeclared dangerous goods discovered cargo under both 49 CFR 175.31 and under the separate reporting requirements in 49 CFR 171.16.
To report discrepancies by phone, call the office listed under the Compliance and Safety Resolution Contacts nearest your location.
To electronically report discrepancies for dangerous goods cargo, including undeclared dangerous goods, email the FAA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety at 9-AWA-AXH-175-31CargoNotifications@faa.gov.
Voluntary Incident Reporting
There are two different Voluntary Incident Reporting Programs:
- Voluntary Disclosure Reporting Program (VDRP) – Air Carrier reports an apparent regulatory violation involving the offering, acceptance, or transportation, of hazardous materials under 14 CFR and/or 49 CFR.
- Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) - Anyone involved in aircraft transport of Hazardous Materials report to describe close calls, violations, and safety-related issues.
U.S. Air Carriers certificated under 14 CFR Parts 119, 121, 125, 135, and to foreign Air Carriers operating in the U.S. that are issued operations specifications under 14 CFR part 129 are encouraged to voluntarily disclose violations of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR).
The FAA believes that aviation safety is well served by incentives for operators to identify and correct their own instances of noncompliance, and to invest more resources in efforts to preclude their recurrence. The Hazardous Materials VDRP allows air carriers to submit information disclosing their own non-compliance with the HMR without incurring civil penalties if the appropriate process is followed.
For further information or to disclose a violation under the VDRP, see the VDRP user guide.
Anyone involved in aircraft transport of Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) or Dangerous Goods is invited to file a confidential NASA ASRS report to describe close calls, violations, and safety-related issues. This VOLUNTARY Incident Report is CONFIDENTIAL and NONPUNITVE.
The FAA and NASA need your help to identify and mitigate HAZMAT-related safety issues.
There are many reasons to provide information about the HAZMAT event or situation that you experienced. The FAA, NASA and other members of the aviation community are committed to improving aviation safety. Through conducting research and analysis of reports, ASRS can share:
- Lessons learned which can help prevent others from making the same mistake.
- Best practices or system-wide safety improvements to:
- Procedures
- Checklists
- Safety briefings
- Training
- Software
NOTE: Filing an ASRS report does NOT fulfill FAA mandatory reporting requirements under Hazardous Materials Regulations. However, your voluntary report may help to identify a risk not currently covered or known under regulatory oversight. Reporting hazards helps prevent injuries and reduces risks to safety.
Resource: ASRS brochure