United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-06-30 monographic deposited born digital 106 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-111 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111 P0b002ee180393596 f:rc00111 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111 RCED-00-111 Safety standards Commercial aviation Transportation safety Interagency relations Air transportation operations Aircraft accidents Performance measures Accident prevention FAA Safer Skies Initiative Chapter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Safer Skies Initiative, focusing on: (1) to what extent addressing the safety problems to be addressed by the initiative will help reduce the fatal accident rate; (2) what progress the initiative has made in identifying and implementing interventions to address each of these safety problems; (3) what progress has been made in assessing the effectiveness of those interventions; and (4) how FAA is coordinating the Safer Skies initiative with other safety activities conducted throughout the agency, in partnership with the aviation industry, and by other federal agencies.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the Safer Skies initiative addresses the safety problems that have contributed to fatal accidents in the past, and in conjunction with other safety problems, it can be expected to reduce the fatal accident rate and thus enhance the safety of the nation's air passengers; (2) in commercial aviation, the initiative addresses safety problems that accounted for over three-quarters of the fatal accidents in those operations in 1988-1997; (3) in general aviation, the Safer Skies initiative plans to address safety problems that appear to be the most common causes of fatal accidents; (4) the initiative has adopted a less aggressive goal in general aviation of reducing the number of fatal accidents to 350 in 2007, which represents about a 20-percent reduction; (5) the initiative addressed four safety problems in cabin safety; (6) to date, safety improvement efforts by FAA and the initiative have focused on reducing the causes of past accidents and incidents, which may not be entirely predictive of future ones; (7) as of April 1, 2000, Safer Skies teams had started work on 13 of the 16 safety problems and had begun implementing interventions for 5 of these--2 in commercial aviation and 3 in cabin safety; (8) since most of the interventions developed under the Safer Skies initiative are in early implementation stages, little progress has been made in evaluating their effectiveness; (9) of the five Safer Skies teams that have begun implementing interventions, only one has developed a performance measure to evaluate whether the interventions it has selected are helping to reduce the safety problems that cause fatal accidents and are worth what they cost; (10) FAA has coordinated extensively with aviation experts from industry, other federal government agencies, and its own staff, but GAO's review identified three coordination problems that could undermine the implementation and evaluation of Safer Skies' interventions; (11) although FAA officials have repeatedly committed to funding interventions agreed upon by all parties, skepticism still exists among some participants as to whether this commitment can or will be honored; (12) furthermore, if funding is limited, it remains unclear what process will be used to reprioritize available resources to ensure funding for interventions that emerge later but have greater potential for reducing the fatal accident rate; and (13) the Safer Skies initiative, FAA, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) have not agreed on how they will measure progress in achieving the accident reduction goal for commercial aviation. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111.pdf GAO/RCED-00-111 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-111 Chapter Report GAO/RCED-00-111; Aviation Safety: Safer Skies Initiative Has Taken Initial; Safety standards Commercial aviation Transportation safety Interagency relations Air transportation operations Aircraft accidents Performance measures Accident prevention FAA Safer Skies Initiative