[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 146 (Friday, August 1, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36276-36279]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-14594]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
[Docket No. FAA-2025-1193]
Notice of Proposed Order Designating U.S. Aviation Safety Team
(USAST) and Aerospace National Safety Issue Registry (ANSIR)
Information as Protected From Public Disclosure
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of
Transportation.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing to
designate safety and security information, reports, data, and work
products provided to the FAA from the U.S. Aviation Safety Team (USAST)
and its membership as protected from public disclosure. The FAA is
authorized to protect voluntarily provided safety and security
information from disclosure. This proposed designation is intended to
encourage the sharing of information between the FAA and the aviation
industry during the discovery of system-level safety issues in the
National Airspace System (NAS) and the development and implementation
of safety enhancements to address these issues. The voluntarily
provided information described in this proposed designation is critical
to the FAA's safety mission because it supports a proactive and
collaborative, data-driven strategy to reduce the risk of fatal and
non-fatal accidents.
DATES: Send comments on or before September 2, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Send comments identified by docket number FAA-2025-1193
using any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for sending your
comments electronically.
Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30; U.S.
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Room W12-140,
West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket
Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200
New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations at (202) 493-2251.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Gomes, Operational Safety
Analyst, Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention Federal
Aviation Administration, 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC
20591. Email: [email protected]. Telephone: 202-267-4920.
Background
Under 49 U.S.C. 40123, certain voluntarily provided safety and
security information is protected from disclosure to encourage persons
to provide the information to the FAA. The FAA's rules for implementing
49 U.S.C. 40123 are in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14
CFR) part 193. The FAA must first issue an order specifying why the
agency finds that the information should be protected in accordance
with that section. If the FAA Administrator issues an order designating
information as protected under section 40123, that information will not
be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) or
other laws except as provided in part 193, and the order designating
the information as protected. This proposed order to protect the USAST
information from disclosure is issued under 14 CFR 193.11, which sets
out the notice procedure for designating information as protected.
Applicability
The final order, based on this proposal, will be applicable to any
FAA organization that receives information covered under this
designation from a chartered stakeholder, attendee, representative, or
participant of the USAST, aviation community safety teams, or working
groups chartered by the USAST. The final order will also apply to any
other government agency that receives such information from the FAA.
For any other government agency to receive USAST information protected
from disclosure under this designation from the FAA, the agency
receiving the protected information must first comply with the
procedure set forth in 14 CFR 193.7(e) and this order.
Description of the Proposed Safety Information To Be Protected
The FAA proposes to designate certain system-level safety issue
information voluntarily provided through the USAST as protected from
disclosure. The USAST is a collaborative leadership body representing
U.S. industry and government stakeholders across the aviation system.
It evolved from the legacy Aviation Safety Information and Analysis
Sharing (ASIAS) Executive Board (AEB) to bring together stakeholders
from across aviation
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communities and offer a new approach and tools for addressing systemic
aviation safety issues. Stakeholders encompass (but are not limited to)
the FAA, air navigation service providers, air carriers and operators,
crewmembers, aerospace manufacturers, aerospace domain associations
(i.e., labor unions, standards bodies, etc.), and aviation community
safety teams.
Aviation community safety teams are chartered public-private
partnerships that work to improve aviation safety by collectively
analyzing aviation safety data to identify emerging issues and develop
strategies to address and prioritize safety issues. Participation in an
aviation community safety team is entirely voluntary. These teams rely
on the voluntary submission of proprietary industry safety data through
the USAST and Aerospace National Safety Issue Registry (ANSIR) to
develop informed mitigations/communications appropriate to their
communities. Aviation community safety teams develop voluntary safety
enhancements as intervention strategies to prevent or mitigate safety
issues. Existing aviation community safety teams include the Commercial
Aviation Safety Team (CAST), General Aviation Joint Safety Committee
(GAJSC), and U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) and their working
groups.
The USAST is led by two executive-level chairpersons: one selected
from the aviation industry and one from the U.S. Government (an FAA
employee selected by the FAA Administrator). The core function of the
USAST is to encourage its membership to unite voluntarily to improve
aviation safety. This is done through voluntary participation in the
operation of a system-level safety issue lifecycle analysis to address
potential systemic safety issues identified through the USAST. The
USAST's system-level safety issue lifecycle relies on both governance
and the ANSIR for success.
A system-level safety issue is anything that involves a potential
hazard that affects one or more segments of the aviation industry or
affects multiple entities within a single segment of the industry. As
part of the system-level safety issue lifecycle, the USAST relies on
voluntary identification and submission of safety issues from the
aviation industry. If appropriate, the safety issue is then validated
and assigned to an aviation community safety team for safety risk
management and mitigation development. The USAST may also conduct
safety promotion activities with the aviation industry to communicate
validated safety issues and/or safety enhancements to the appropriate
aviation community safety team for awareness.
The ANSIR tool is the central repository where information
regarding systemic safety or security issues is collected voluntarily
from the aviation industry and available in a standardized format. The
USAST is responsible for the management and monitoring of the ANSIR.
The ANSIR is used throughout the lifecycle of the safety issue as
analyses and assessments are conducted and mitigations are developed,
implemented, tracked, and monitored to ensure the achievement of safety
targets. Contributions of safety issue information into the ANSIR are
voluntarily provided by industry participants with the collective
understanding that the information will not be disclosed unless
validated and approved by the USAST. The FAA and aviation community
safety teams receive voluntarily provided aviation safety issues as
chartered stakeholders of the USAST, participants of the system-level
safety lifecycle, and users of the ANSIR.
Supporting the ANSIR, USAST governance of the system-level safety
issue lifecycle requires the documentation of safety issue information
across a variety of formats and at stages where the issue may not be
fully validated. These formats may include USAST meeting agendas,
meeting minutes, presentations, inputs/outputs of the ANSIR tool, and
reports or other analyses. The information provided in these documents
is voluntarily provided to the USAST. Release of this information
before a safety issue is validated and approved by the USAST would
jeopardize industry participation and reduce the willingness of the
aviation industry to submit safety issues as part of the USAST.
The ANSIR and USAST processes fully rely on confidence that
voluntarily submitted safety and security information from any of the
USAST chartered stakeholders or representatives is protected from
disclosure, thus encouraging them to voluntarily report potential
safety issues. Protection of voluntarily provided USAST and ANSIR
system-level safety issue information allows the USAST to appropriately
assess the information without the potential negative effects from
involuntary release of the information before validation has occurred.
The voluntary contributions from aviation stakeholders to the USAST
and ANSIR are core components to the success of these teams and
programs. Without certain protections for USAST and ANSIR information,
reports, data, and work products, the U.S. Government may be unable to
work effectively with the aviation industry to develop safety
enhancements for systemic safety issues.
Summary of the Protected Safety Information
A. Who may participate?
Entities eligible for participation include chartered stakeholders,
attendees, and representatives of the USAST, along with aviation
community safety teams and working groups chartered by the USAST. This
encompasses air navigation service providers, air carriers and
operators, crewmembers, aerospace industry manufacturers, aviation
community safety teams, and aerospace industry associations or
organizations (i.e., labor unions, standards bodies, etc.).
B. What voluntarily provided information will be protected from
disclosure?
1. All information, reports, data, and work products conducted
through the USAST's system-level safety issue lifecycle governance in
support of the validation and verification of systemic aviation safety
and security issues.
2. All information voluntarily provided and documented before, at,
or after any USAST meeting or event that covers systemic aviation
safety and security issues, emerging threats, changing risks, or
accident precursors unless validated and approved by the USAST and part
of a USAST approved safety promotion activity.
3. All safety or security issue information submitted to and
coordinated within the ANSIR. This includes but is not limited to,
titles of the issues, descriptions, submitter information, supporting
data, and all ANSIR user feedback surrounding the safety or security
issue until the issue is validated and approved by the USAST and part
of a USAST approved safety promotion activity.
4. All information, reports, data, and work products conducted
through the USAST work groups that relate to the preliminary analysis
of safety or security issues before obtaining USAST approval and part
of a USAST approved safety promotion activity. This also includes all
information, reports, data, and work products from the USAST work group
findings during routine monitoring of aviation safety data for known
risks, emerging risks, and anomalies.
5. All information, reports, data, and work products conducted
through any
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preliminary safety risk management processes done by any of the USAST
chartered stakeholders, representatives, or communities in response to
a safety issue submitted to the USAST and prior to USAST approval of
the issue for further action. For a safety issue, this includes the
identification of hazards, analysis of risk, assessment of risk,
development of risk controls, and documentation of safety risk
acceptance before the safety issue and risk management processes are
complete and approved by the FAA.
6. All information related to identifying if a USAST chartered
stakeholder, attendee, representative, operator, or industry community
has implemented a safety enhancement recommended by USAST that is
reported to the FAA.
7. All information related to the level of safety enhancement
implementation, the methods used to implement, and the results of
implementation provided by a USAST chartered stakeholder,
representative, operator, or industry community that is reported to the
FAA.
8. Reports, agendas, minutes, and other documents prepared by the
FAA, any USAST chartered stakeholder, attendee, representative, or
aviation community safety team, or any team or workgroup established by
or associated with the USAST that is based on information related to
the implementation of safety enhancements.
9. Any information voluntarily provided by the eligible entities
related to the implementation of safety enhancements and/or the
effectiveness of these safety enhancements in eliminating or mitigating
underlying safety hazards.
C. How can persons participate?
Eligible entities that comprise the USAST can participate by
voluntarily providing aviation system-level safety or security issue
data to the USAST, its respective safety teams, or ANSIR as part of the
normal operating processes or on an ad-hoc basis.
D. What is the duration of this protection?
Information provided to the USAST and ANSIR as part of its ongoing
processes in support of the identification of systemic safety issues
and implementation of safety enhancements will be protected
indefinitely.
Summary of Proposed Findings
The FAA is proposing to designate information received from
eligible entities related to potential system-level safety issues and
safety enhancements as protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR 193.7
based on the following findings:
1. Summary of Why FAA Finds That the Information Will Be Provided
Voluntarily
The core principle of USAST and the ANSIR is voluntary
participation. Those who are chartered stakeholders, attendees,
representatives, or communities within the USAST, who take part in the
safety analysis, determine the feasibility of safety enhancements, and
agree to implement the enhancements do so voluntarily. Contributions of
safety issue information into the ANSIR are voluntarily provided by the
aviation industry with the collective understanding that the
information will not be disclosed and that it will be used to
collectively improve aviation safety by all USAST's voluntary
participants. The FAA and aviation community safety teams receive the
voluntarily provided aviation safety issues as chartered stakeholders
of the USAST, participants of the system-level safety lifecycle, and
users of the ANSIR.
2. Description of the Type of Information That May Be Voluntarily
Provided Under the Program and Why the FAA Finds That the Information
is Safety or Security Related
USAST participants voluntarily provide safety or security related
information to the ANSIR that identifies possible system-level issues
in the NAS. A system-level safety or security issue is anything that
involves a potential hazard that affects one or more segments of the
aviation industry or affects multiple entities within a single segment
of the industry. As part of the USAST's system-level safety issue
lifecycle, the USAST relies on identification and voluntary submission
of safety issues from the industry. The issue is subsequently validated
and assigned to an aviation community safety team for safety risk
management and mitigation or safety enhancement development. Issues
submitted and pending validation require protection from disclosure;
however, this designation will not offer protection from disclosure for
issues submitted that are determined not to be safety or security
related. USAST participants also voluntarily provide information about
safety enhancements implementation, the method of implementation, the
process to evaluate the implementation, and any other information, such
as best practices related to the implementation of safety enhancements.
The FAA finds that the information is safety or security related
because it contributes towards achieving and measuring USAST aviation
safety goals (e.g. reducing the risk of fatal and non-fatal accidents.)
by using voluntary, proactive, data-driven strategies to get results
and develop collaborative safety interventions.
3. Summary of Why the FAA Finds That the Disclosure of the Information
Would Inhibit Persons From Voluntarily Providing That Type of
Information
The ANSIR and USAST processes fully rely on confidence that
voluntarily submitted safety and security information from any of the
USAST chartered stakeholders, attendees, or representatives is
protected from disclosure. The protection provided by this designation
will encourage them to voluntarily report potential safety issues
without fear of uncontrolled and involuntary public release of this
information. Eligible entities part of the USAST will be reluctant to
share sensitive safety information with the FAA if it might be subject
to public disclosure.
Release of the voluntarily provided information to the public may
be incomplete, unreliable, or sensitive. The release of this
information may adversely affect the USAST participants and the
aviation industry, discouraging further voluntary information sharing.
Protecting system-level safety issue information voluntarily provided
through the USAST governance and ANSIR tool allows the FAA and USAST to
appropriately assess the information and work with the aviation
industry to validate and verify the issue (along with creating safety
interventions).
Participation in the USAST and ANSIR is not required by regulation.
The U.S. aviation industry also has wide discretion to choose if it
will implement safety enhancements because such enhancements are not
required by regulation. There is great concern that if the information
listed above is disclosed, there is the potential for the information
to be used for purposes other than improving aviation safety and
improving aviation safety is the primary reason for establishing the
USAST.
4. Summary of Why Receiving the Information Aids in Fulfilling the
FAA's Safety and Security Responsibilities
The FAA finds that receipt of safety issue information through the
USAST and ANSIR aids in fulfilling the FAA's safety responsibilities
because it provides early identification of potential hazards in the
NAS, allowing the FAA to proactively address risk in the
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system. This offers the FAA a unique opportunity to work with the
aviation industry to avoid incidents or accidents. The USAST and ANSIR
can produce safety-related information that may not be available from
any other source and may improve the FAA's ability to modify
procedures, policies, and regulations to improve aviation safety.
The FAA and DOT's safety goals, as highlighted in the FAA's Flight
Plan 2021, include ``identifying use cases for predictive analytics and
supporting technologies to implement enterprise-level solutions'' along
with ``defining an enterprise-level process utilizing data for
determining and re-evaluating safety measures for a 21st century NAS''.
With the information provided to the FAA through the USAST, the FAA and
industry will be able to identify systemic aviation safety issues,
emerging threats, changing risks, and accident precursors effectively
and proactively and determine whether safety enhancements to address
these issues are effective. This information supports the FAA's safety
goals around the proactive identification of systemic safety or
security issues in the NAS and the establishment of an enterprise-level
process that brings data and people together voluntarily to improve
aviation safety.
5. Summary of Why Withholding the Information From Disclosure Is
Consistent With FAA Safety Responsibilities and When Withholding the
Information From Disclosure Would Not Be Consistent With FAA Safety
Responsibilities as Described in 14 CFR 193.9
Withholding such information from disclosure is consistent with the
FAA's safety responsibilities because without voluntary contributions
of safety or security issues from the aviation industry and information
on the implementation of the safety enhancements, the FAA and USAST
will not be able to determine the effectiveness of safety enhancements
or proactively discover systemic safety issues before they cause harm
within the NAS.
Unless the FAA can provide assurance that certain USAST and ANSIR
information will not be disclosed, the FAA and USAST may not receive
information that would otherwise be used to improve aviation safety.
Without this information, the FAA and USAST will be limited in their
ability to understand the possible system-level safety issues that the
aviation industry may be experiencing and make the changes necessary to
address those issues before any accidents or incidents occur.
Withholding the information encourages entities to voluntarily provide
it because they know it is protected once the FAA receives it. In turn,
the more information the FAA receives, the more effectively it can
exercise aviation safety oversight and analyze systemic safety and
security issues.
Withholding the information from disclosure would not be consistent
with FAA safety responsibilities as described in 14 CFR 193.9 when
reports or other data involve possible criminal activity, substance
abuse, improper use of controlled substances and/or alcohol,
intentional falsification, reckless conduct (i.e., an act (or failure
to act) demonstrating a gross disregard for, or deliberate indifference
to, safety or a safety standard), intentional conduct (i.e., an act (or
failure to act) while knowing that such conduct is contrary to a
regulation or statute, or is otherwise prohibited), or generally
demonstrate a lack of care, judgment, or responsibility. The protection
described in this proposed designation will not apply to information
falling into these instances.
The FAA may disclose de-identified information, as set forth in
part 193, to explain the need for changes in FAA policies and
regulations. As part of the USAST's safety promotion activities, the
FAA may (in consultation with the USAST) release information as set
forth in part 193 to communicate its work with aviation safety
communities or other third parties involved with the USAST to address
system-level safety issues. In either of these situations, the FAA may
release de-identified, aggregate, and summarized information derived
from information reported about the implementation of USAST safety
enhancements, information provided within the ANSIR, or information
provided through the USAST.
The FAA will give information to USAST participants who are
government agencies only if each agency meets the requirements in 14
CFR 193.7(e). The FAA will give information to USAST participants who
are third parties only if the third party provides adequate assurance
in writing that it has a safety or security need for the information,
it will protect the information from further release, and it will limit
access to those with a need to know to carry out safety
responsibilities.
6. Summary of How the FAA Will Distinguish Information Protected Under
Part 193 From Information the FAA Receives From Other Sources
Information received by the FAA from eligible entities concerning
safety and security issues identified through the USAST and ANSIR will
be clearly labeled as follows to be protected under this designation:
WARNING: This information may be protected from disclosure under 49 U.S
Code (U.S.C) Section 40123 and 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Part 193.
In this way, the information protected under this order will be
easily identified and distinguished from information the FAA receives
from other sources.
Proposed Designation
The FAA hereby proposes to designate the above-described
information submitted as part of the USAST's system-level safety issue
lifecycle and safety enhancements to be protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123
and 14 CFR part 193.
Issued in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2025.
Genoveva Martin,
Chief of Staff, Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention, AVP-1.
[FR Doc. 2025-14594 Filed 7-31-25; 8:45 am]
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