Safety data on US air carriers are to be put on the Internet by the Federal Aviation Administration, in a bid to make them more accessible to the travelling public. The agency says it will not, however, rank airlines according to their accident records, although information on accidents and some incidents will be released.
The first information is scheduled for publication during the first week in February. European agencies say that they have no plans for providing a similar service.
The policy is a reaction to public anger when it was revealed that US carrier ValuJet had been under special FAA safety surveillance at the time of the 11 May, 1996 crash of one of its McDonnell Douglas DC-9s, in which 110 people died. Details of the FAA's ValuJet surveillance action were kept from the public, although they were accessible by formal application under the Freedom of Information Act.
The agency is to make available a broad range of accident data, details of FAA enforcement actions against carriers, and other safety-related information. Airlines' confidential incident reporting systems, operated to enable safety self-monitoring, will remain confidential. Information about security violations will also not be released, to prevent terrorists gaining information.
US airlines, which opposed any kind of safety ranking, have largely welcomed the plan. However, it has drawn criticism from consumer groups,which have have been pressing the FAA to make its safety data more accurate and timely.
FAA officials say that a safety ranking is not possible as there are many types of data relevant to aviation safety, and there is no consensus about how best to measure it. "Looking at past accidents offers no predictive value, and safety data do not offer meaningful distinctions among carriers," they say.
FAA actions appear inconsistent on this issue. Last May, in the wake of the ValuJet crash, it issued a report that examined the safety records of commercial airlines, concluding there was little difference between low-cost and major airlines in accident rates, runway incursions and pilot deviations. The report showed that ValuJet had the highest number of accidents among the low-cost carriers.
Source: Flight International
