Quote:
Originally Posted by flybigjet
For pilots (at least at my airline), you're required to file what's called an FSAP (Flight Safety Awareness Program)-- which is part of a larger FAA program called ASAP (Aviation Safety Awareness Program).
I don't want to get *too* in-depth, but the big picture is that the Fed's have figured out that it's better to do forgiveness for making a mistake rather than bringing the hammer down for each infraction-- because Safety is of paramount importance-- i.e. by being forgiving and not trying to ruin a pilot's life for making an honest mistake, the Fed's get a lot more Safety reports and can fix problems that may be occuring in the system.
By filing an FSAP (and all pilots on the crew have to file for individual protection), you are protected from certificate action unless what you're reporting is an act of willful or intentional negligence or unsafe operation-- In other words, if you honestly screw something up (e.g. putting yourself in a position where you get an RA), you confess your sins (and it's a very long and detailed report), your job is protected and the Fed's get the information to figure out what happened to create an unsafe condition and how to potentially mitigate it in the future. The report goes to a ton of people-- the Union, the Airline, the FAA, and whomever it might affect (ATC, Airport Operations, etc.)
Basically, filing an FSAP allows the FAA to figure out WHAT went wrong-- which is then treated as a lot more important than WHO screwed up. Every single flight has errors-- whether they're from Ramp Controllers, Operations, the flight crew, ATC (Ground, Tower, Departure, Enroute, Arrival, etc.)-- the goal is to figure out what went wrong, and then mitigate it from happening in the future.
It took far too long for the Feds to figure out that pilots make honest mistakes for whatever reason (go figure). By changing from a punitive to a collaborative environment, the FAA has solved a lot of unsafe conditions/procedures/etc. and have prevented an unknown amount of future accidents.
I'm a big fan of the program-- it's a Good Thing.
R.
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Granted, I retired/got fired 10 years ago, but I never saw a pilot's RA report
. Our reporting system was called ATSAP; probably the same thing, but we were "encouraged" to be as vague as possible. Being an employee of the FAA (Dep't of Trans specifically), ATSAP protected us from punitive actions. The problem without the "consequence" of losing certification & retraining, deals aren't taken too seriously. There used to be a policy that 3 deals in 18 months and one was off to a lower-density (read slower & easier) facility. That doesn't happen anymore.