[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 235 (Thursday, December 5, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64540-64541]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-30936]


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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD


Reporting Statistics--Airlines

AGENCY: National Transportation Safety Board.

ACTION: Notice of proposed statistical reporting changes and request 
for comment.

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SUMMARY: The NTSB has developed a proposed system for classifying 
airline accidents based upon the severity of their consequences. An 
improved classification system that provides more meaningful measures 
of the level of safety of airline transportation is required by the FAA 
Reauthorization Act. This notice provides a description of the proposed 
classification system and of several additional accident parameters 
that the NTSB intends to publish. Many of the statistics focus on 
passenger injuries.

DATES: The law to which this action is a response was signed by the 
President on October 9, 1996, and requires that the NTSB complete 
development of the new classification system by January 7, 1997. 
Comments are due December 16, 1996. The NTSB will attempt to consider 
comments received after that date, as staff time and resources permit.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted either by electronic mail 
(AirS[email protected]) or by other means to: Analysis and Data Division 
(R-50), ATTN: Airline Statistics, National Transportation Safety Board, 
490 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20594-2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Stan Smith (202) 314-6550.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NTSB believes that its proposal is fully 
responsive to the law, and in fact exceeds its requirements. There is 
no intention to change the definition of an accident (``an occurrence 
associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between 
the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight 
and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers 
death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial 
damage'').
    Airline safety statistics that the NTSB published in recent years 
include: the number of accidents and fatal accidents; overall and fatal 
accident rates using flight hours, departures, and miles as normalizing 
factors; and the numbers of fatalities aboard and total. These 
statistics have been presented for each year of a several-year series. 
None of the statistics, taken alone can be considered an accurate 
measure of airline safety and can be misleading. For example, some 
fatal accidents involving only ground crew fatalities pose no threat to 
the aircraft or its occupants. Yet the fatal accident statistics have 
counted such accidents equal to those resulting in the total 
destruction of an aircraft with no survivors.
    While the NTSB has found no single index that perfectly indicates 
the state of airline safety, it believes the new classification system 
is an improvement over the current statistics. For each safety 
statistic described herein, the NTSB has developed sample charts using 
historical data, estimated data, and partial-year data for 1996. These 
samples are available at the above address, Room 5111, and on the NTSB 
world wide web site (http://www.ntsb.gov).

a. Accident Severity Classification for Airline Accidents

    In the proposed classification system below, each accident 
involving a Part 121 aircraft is placed into one of four mutually 
exclusive and collectively exhaustive categories. If an accident 
involves more than one Part 121 aircraft, the accident is placed into 
the category appropriate to the most severe consequences to any of 
those aircraft. Such an accident counts only once (rather than counting 
once for each of the Part 121 aircraft involved.) The four accident 
categories, defined in terms of the injuries and aircraft damage that 
resulted from the accident are:
    I. ``Major'' Accident--an accident in which any of three conditions 
is met: (1) a Part 121 aircraft was destroyed, (2) there were multiple 
fatalities, or (3) there was one fatality and a Part 121 aircraft was 
substantially damaged.
    II. ``Severe'' Accident--an accident in which at least one of two 
conditions is met: (1) there was one fatality without substantial 
damage to a Part 121 aircraft, or (2) there was at least one serious 
injury and a Part 121 aircraft was substantially damaged.
    III. ``Injury'' Accident--a nonfatal accident with at least one 
serious injury and without substantial damage to a Part 121 aircraft. 
(These often involve abrupt maneuvers, turbulence, evacuation, or 
scalding.)
    IV. ``Damage'' Accident--an accident in which no person was killed 
or seriously injured, but in which any aircraft was substantially 
damaged.
    The NTSB reports the numbers of accidents in each category and 
corresponding accident rates per flight hour and/or departure. These 
statistics are reported for the industry as a whole and not by airline, 
aircraft type, etc. The Board believes that accident statistics 
reported in the form described above will be useful to the aviation 
safety community, the press, and the public in assessing the state of 
aviation safety.

B. Destroyed Aircraft Statistics for Airline Accidents

    The NTSB reports the number of destroyed aircraft and the 
corresponding rate by hours and/or departures. These statistics are 
reported for U.S. airline operations as a whole and are not reported by 
airline, aircraft type, etc. Accident statistics reported in this form 
are expected to be of particular interest to the aviation safety 
community, but will be useful to the press and the public in 
understanding the state of aviation safety.

C. Passenger Injury Statistics for Passenger Operations of Airlines

    The NTSB reports numbers of fatally- and seriously-injured 
passengers and their corresponding passenger injury rates by passenger 
miles and/or passenger enplanements. Rates will be reported inversely 
to the way they are customarily presented--for example, passenger miles 
per fatality rather than fatalities per million passenger miles. We 
believe that this convention will have greater meaning to the typical 
consumer of the information. These statistics are reported for U.S. 
airline passenger operations as a whole and are not reported by 
airline, aircraft type, etc. Passenger injury statistics reported in 
this form are expected to be particularly useful to the press and the 
public in assessing aviation safety, and will be another safety 
indicator of interest to the aviation community.

D. Passenger Fatality Accident List

    The NTSB publishes a list of accidents that caused passenger 
fatalities aboard U.S. airlines. The list includes the airline, the 
aircraft model, and the number of passenger fatalities and survivors.

E. Passenger Fatality Time Line

    The NTSB publishes a graphical portrayal of passenger fatalities 
aboard

[[Page 64541]]

U.S. airlines. This graphic shows at a glance the number of passenger 
fatalities and the time between the accidents that caused them.

    Issued in Washington, DC on this 29th day of November, 1996.
Jim Hall,
Chairman.
[FR Doc. 96-30936 Filed 11-4-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7533-01-M