Description

❓ Why did we stand up the United States Aviation Safety Team (USAST)?

Aviation is unquestionably the safest mode of transportation in the Unites States. However, risk in the National Airspace System (NAS) is continuously evolving, increasingly complex, and interconnected across different aviation industry sectors. Taking safety to the next level will require us to—

• Reduce the time it takes to identify and manage risk;
• Move toward a more proactive and predictive environment for addressing risk; and
• Leverage proven advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Achieving additional safety improvements will require an integrated, holistic approach that speeds the flow of information – from hazard identification through mitigation on the front line of operations to monitoring the effectiveness of mitigations developed by safety risk management teams. It also requires even more coordination, collaboration, and cooperation between government and industry, as well as across industry sectors.

We have created the USAST in an effort to—

• Share safety intelligence in an evolving environment, including open-source data, through improvements in the governance of the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system and the safety teams (U.S. Commercial Aviation Safety Team (USCAST), General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC), U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), and Drone Safety Team (DST)).
• Harmonize the disparate efforts of the safety teams under a cohesive national framework that can be expanded to encompass new entrants, employing the Safety Management System (SMS) process as its foundation.
• Significantly reduce the time to identify priority safety issues by sharing more data producing actionable safety intelligence, engaging industry to enhance communication, promote safety with transparency, and establishing clear roles and responsibilities for active engagement.

❓ Are Safety Enhancements still being produced?

The work of the various safety teams (USCAST, GAJSC, USHST, and DST) to produce voluntary enhancements to safety will continue as before. However, that work will be directed and coordinated by the USAST through the Aerospace National Safety Issue Registry (ANSIR). This registry is a key tool in ensuring a coordinated and comprehensive approach to managing aviation safety risks nationally. This approach allows for coordination and collaboration across multiple aviation sectors, sharing different perspectives and best practices on issues that may impact multiple stakeholder communities.

❓ What is the Aerospace National Safety Issue Registry (ANSIR)?

The Aerospace National Safety Issue Registry (ANSIR) serves as a centralized database that catalogs potential aerospace hazards at the national level. This registry encompasses detailed information on various safety issues identified across the aviation industry, the potential impact of hazards, and any mitigation strategies that have been developed or are in progress. The registry facilitates the sharing of potential safety hazards to allow all to proactively manage risk. The ANSIR ensures a comprehensive approach to potential aviation safety issues. An ANSIR team will monitor information contributed to the ANSIR, gather available data, and work with the Safety Assurance Team (SAT) to present a preliminary analysis to the USAST for prioritization and agreement on the next steps.

CONTACT USAST: ast@asiasinfo.org