THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is planning to have a database for monitoring the air-transport industry's "safety health" operational by February 1996.
The new Safety Performance Analysis System (SPAS) will have data entered by FAA field inspectors as they carry out periodic checks of airlines and installations. SPAS database analysis, the FAA predicts, will enable the detection of trends, risks and areas, which need extra surveillance, in individual airlines and industry-wide.
All organisations under FAA surveillance will eventually have their performance files in the SPAS, including maintenance and repair stations and training schools. Eventually, the SPAS is intended to deal with information as detailed as personnel performance.
Using networked desktop computers with Microsoft's Windows 95 software for data entry and analysis, the field installation will be located at 56 sites.
Data entered will include:
FAA surveillance results;
accident and incident details;
financial information;
US Department of Defense reports.
By detecting favourable or unfavourable trends, the FAA says that it expects the SPAS to enable it to make better use of its limited inspection resources.
Source: Flight International
