Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing Program

Monday, April 8, 2019

In an effort to promote an open exchange of safety information to continuously improve aviation safety, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation industry developed the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program. For the past 11 years, ASIAS has drawn together a wide variety of safety data and information sources across Government and industry, including voluntarily provided safety data.  

The program continues to evolve, but has matured to the point that it now incorporates voluntarily provided safety data from operators that represent 99 percent of U.S. air carrier operations in the National Airspace System (NAS). ASIAS continues to pioneer advanced analytical capabilities to provide safety teams with enhanced insight into these operations.

How ASIAS Works
The ASIAS Executive Board (AEB) provides oversight of the ASIAS program, approving policy and authorizing ASIAS studies. The Issue Analysis Team (IAT) executes activities as directed by the AEB and develops proposals on priorities and process changes for AEB consideration. The AEB authorizes the use of ASIAS data to identify, characterize, and monitor systemic safety issues through risk assessment, root cause analysis, and the development of risk mitigation strategies. 

The ASIAS program works closely with the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) and the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC) to monitor known risks, evaluate the effectiveness of deployed mitigations, and detect emerging risks.

IAT
The IAT is a team composed of members of ASIAS Stakeholder Organizations that represent the commercial aviation community. The IAT executes activities as directed by the AEB and develops proposals on priorities and process changes for AEB consideration. The IAT puts systemic safety issues in context for the AEB, which may choose to authorize in?depth analysis or disseminate the information to ASIAS Stakeholder Organizations and other safety groups for risk analyses.

CAST
ASIAS has established metrics that enable CAST to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of deployed safety mitigations. In recent years, CAST has evolved beyond its “historic” approach of examining past accident data to a proactive approach that focuses on detecting risk and implementing mitigation strategies before accidents or serious incidents occur. 

GAJSC
ASIAS also incorporates de-identified general aviation (GA) operations data to enable the GAJSC to identify risks and evaluate the effectiveness of deployed solutions. ASIAS and the GAJSC continue to conduct outreach to the GA community to demonstrate the benefits of sharing safety data with ASIAS in a protected, non-punitive manner.

Aviation Safety InfoShare
ASIAS also partners with the industry-sponsored Aviation Safety InfoShare meeting, which facilitates the sharing of safety issues and best practices in a protected environment. This partnership enables ASIAS to gain insight into safety issues and leverage its data repository to identify emerging systemic safety issues within the NAS.

Data Sources
The ASIAS data repository continues to expand, incorporating a wide variety of public and proprietary data sources. Each source provides information from different parts of the NAS.  Current examples include—

  • ASAP (Aviation Safety Action Program),
  • ASDE–X (Airport Surface Detection Equipment–Model X),
  • ASPM (Airspace Performance Metrics),
  • ASRS (Aviation Safety Reporting System),
  • ATSAP (Air Traffic Safety Action Program),
  • FOQA (Flight Operational Quality Assurance),
  • METAR (Meteorological Aviation Report),
  • MOR (Mandatory Occurrence Reports),
  • NFDC (National Flight Data Center),
  • NMAC (Near Mid-Air Collisions),
  • NOP (National Offload Program office track data),
  • SDR (Service Difficulty Reports), and
  • TFMS (Traffic Flow Management System).

ASIAS Stakeholders
There are currently 47 Part 121 member air carriers, 88 corporate/business operators, 12 universities, 5 manufacturers, and 2 maintenance, repair, and overhaul organizations participating in ASIAS. Participation in ASIAS continues to grow as part of a phased expansion designed to engage the corporate/business and light GA communities and lay groundwork for the future inclusion of new communities such as the helicopter industry.

For a list of stakeholders and information on ASIAS, visit: https://portal.asias.aero

Awards
ASIAS’s contributions in advancing aviation safety over the past decade were recognized in March 2018 when ASIAS was selected in conjunction with CAST as recipient of the 2018 Aviation Week Laureate Award for Commercial Safety. ASIAS was also awarded the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary’s Safety Team award in 2015.