Helhetlig analyse av FOQA langt unna - USA

FAA air safety data analytics program years away from predictive capability

The Federal Aviation Administration still has work ahead of it before it can turn a database of aviation safety data into an tool capable of making predictive analytics, says the Transportation Department office of inspector general.

Since 2007, the FAA has operated the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing system, using as data sources programs including voluntary efforts that allow carriers to submit anonymized flight data generated during aircraft operation or aviation employees to report safety violations without fear of reprisal.

The ASIAS system has grown to where now 44 carriers participate in it, and the FAA has begun scouring the data to identify risk trends and used it to make data models of the national airspace, the DOT OIG says in a newly released Dec. 18 report.

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But, "several years of work remain before ASIAS becomes the predictive tool FAA envisions," auditors say, adding that close coordination between safety and air traffic organizations will be essential for the agency to realize its goal.

The agency may also have to address data quality and standardization challenges, auditors say, although their resolution may exceed the FAA's direct power.

For example, one data source--the Flight Operational Quality Assurance program that collects de-identified flight recorder data--has problems with data transmission, sensor failures and collection. Representatives from one U.S. carrier told auditors that FOQA captures only 60 to 75 percent of the flight recorder data generated last month, "due to the lack of maintenance personnel available to download FOQA data." It's a problem that only carriers can resolve, auditors acknowledge--although they say note that the FAA has said it would try by this year to have reduced the time it takes to incorporate FOQA data from new ASIAS members in a bid to make the benefits of participation more readily apparent.

The voluntary air safety violation program known as the Aviation Safety Action Program also has problems as a data source, auditors say, stating that carriers submit reports inconsistently categorized and that the most critical information in the report narratives "can be difficult to extract and aggregate." The FAA and MITRE are actively working to address those problems, auditors say, including through creation of an ASAP taxonomy and automatic classification of reports.

For more:
- download the report, AV-2014-017 (.pdf)