Research Projects

In 2009, general aviation (GA) was responsible for approximately 95% of civil aviation accidents and 89% of fatalities. In spite of a safety record in clear need of improvement, there are various safety programs and efforts underway in the commercial sector that are not yet evident in GA.

The purpose of this research is to examine the feasibility of designing and implementing an Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program for GA (ASIAS-GA), and to conceive a governance framework for such a program. ASIAS in the commercial sector uses data derived from two key voluntary safety programs, i.e., Flight Operations Quality Assurance and Aviation Safety Action Program, among other data sources, to support safety analyses. Since these programs are not established in GA, these important data sources are unavailable for ASIAS-GA. That notwithstanding, numerous sources of data have been identified that are both available and relevant to GA, though issues related to data integration have yet to be addressed. It is recommended that the governance structure for ASIAS-GA follow the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) concept, with distributed sub-teams to support the heterogeneous nature of GA. Further, it is recommended that ASIAS-GA be implemented in a phased approach, beginning with the business/corporate aviation and university-based aviation segments of GA.