Summary

Service Difficulty Reports (SDRs) are reports submitted to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by aircraft operators and certified repair stations when they discover or experience a failure, malfunction, or defect while operating, or performing maintenance on an aircraft. The SDR records are rich in information pertaining to aviation safety. However, the information within the free-form text descriptions is not readily accessible, as they lack standardization and often any grammatical structure. Additionally, they contain shorthand abbreviations, typographical errors, and may substitute key words and phrases with references to external documentation such as maintenance manuals, part numbers, procedures, federal regulations, etc.