Avionics News May 2014 - 16

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A EA V I C E P R ES I D E N T O F G OV E R N M E N T & I N D U ST RY A F FA I RS

The Aircraft Electronics Association's international membership continues to grow. Currently, the AEA represents avionics
businesses in more than 40 countries throughout the world. To better serve the needs of the AEA's international membership,
the "International News and Regulatory Updates" section of Avionics News offers a greater focus on international regulatory
activity, international industry news and an international "Frequently Asked Questions" column to help promote standardization.
If you have comments about this section, send emails to avionicsnews@aea.net.

UNITED STATES

News & Regulatory Updates
Aviation Safety Information Analysis and
Sharing Project Demonstration for General Aviation (ASIAS for GA Project Demo)
On March 21, the Federal Aviation Administration
announced a one-year program to demonstrate the capabilities of ASIAS (aviation safety information analysis and
sharing) for the general aviation community.
The general aviation community has experienced little to
no decrease in the number of fatal accidents during the last
five years. As a result, the FAA administrator has identified
the implementation of initiatives aimed at reducing general
aviation fatal accidents as a high priority. These initiatives
include the work of the General Aviation Joint Steering
Committee (the AEA actively participates with this group)
and bringing general aviation operations into ASIAS.
To promote an open exchange of safety information for
the continuous improvement of aviation safety, the FAA
and the aviation industry working in partnership developed ASIAS, a collaborative information-sharing program
supported by the aviation community to facilitate the proactive analysis of data from broad and extensive sources
for the purposes of advancing safety initiatives and discovering vulnerabilities in the air transportation system.
The sources of safety data range from public-sector data
the FAA collects to proprietary data that ASIAS participants voluntarily submit. ASIAS enables the aviation community and the FAA to jointly view different data sources
and analyze the aggregate data. This allows ASIAS
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participants to further analyze their own data and make
comparisons to industry norms. ASIAS benefits the FAA
and the aviation industry by enabling them to analyze and
track accident precursors and known safety hazards, and
to identify and track newly identified operational risks.
The ASIAS community consists of the FAA and privatesector organizations, such as corporate operators, airlines,
manufacturers and pilot associations. ASIAS participants
currently provide de-identified digital flight data and/or deidentified safety reports to ASIAS under various agreements.
The GA JSC is reaching out to the general aviation
community directly and through several associations,
including the AEA, to educate pilots and other stakeholders on the benefits of sharing collected safety data with
ASIAS in a protected non-punitive manner, similar to programs for commercial aviation. In addition, the GA JSC
continues its work to maximize safety in general aviation
operations. For example, to date, it has proposed 26 safety
interventions to address loss of control. However, analysis
shows that more comprehensive data sources from the
general aviation community resulting from a GA ASIAS
data-sharing program would improve understanding of
contributing factors to safety risks in the system.
The administrator announced the GA ASIAS
Demonstration Project at the General Aviation Summit at
FAA headquarters on Jan. 27. The purpose of this demonstration project is to test the technical ability to bring
general aviation data into ASIAS. This project will also
demonstrate the value of ASIAS to the general aviation
pilot community and industry (associations, manufacturers, instructors and type clubs).
As part of the GA ASIAS Demonstration Project,
pilots who voluntarily submit their flight data will do so
through the National General Aviation Flight Information

Avionics News May 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News May 2014