Editor’s Notebook: On the FAAST Track

The FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) has produced its pocket calendar again for the coming 2008 year. The calendar highlights a dozen human factors that can lead to mistakes in aviation maintenance. The calendar is a handy pocket size to make it easy to carry. The human factors reminders, one for each month, are brief, non-judgmental, and on target for maintainers. Best of all, this calendar is free to companies and individuals wanting them. The easiest way to get these calendars for your company is to go online at www.faasafety.gov to find your area FAASTeam manager. Contact that manager directly or you can call 1-863-647-3434, the FAASTeam National Resource Center in Lakeland, Fla.

What is the FAASTeam, you ask? The FAASTeam was launched on October 1, 2006, just a little more than a year ago. Its arrival coincided with the end of the FAA’s Aviation Safety Program (ASP). "The ASP’s shotgun approach of educating airmen on all types of safety subjects has been successful at reducing accidents in the past. However, the easy to fix accident causes have all been addressed. In other words, the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has been harvested. To take aviation safety one step further, Flight Standards Service created the FAASTeam," according to Kevin Clover, Flight Standards Service’s National FAA Safety Team manager. "The FAASTeam is devoted to reducing aircraft accidents by promoting a cultural change in the aviation community toward a higher level of safety."

The FAASTeam is working to bring new resources to mechanics and all airmen. They are focusing on showing aviation professionals how they can change their behavior to be consistent with the safety culture.

On the FAASafety.gov Web site, new, targeted information is being added specifically for mechanics and maintenance professionals. Maintenance professionals had initially found the maintenance-related information on the site difficult to find. So, new tabs are being added to make it more maintenance-user friendly. Go to the Web site, register and encourage your company to register as well. Keep watching for the new information for mechanics. On January 1, 2008, the Web site will add a new course for mechanics focusing on procedural compliance, an area that FAASTeam researchers found to be causal in many maintenance-related incidents/accidents.

The FAASTeam is also moving to automate the AMT Awards program, targeting 2009 as the point at which all applications for AMT Awards will need to be filled out online at the FAASafety.gov Web site. Companies and individuals will need to be registered on the site to apply. Registering is easy. Simply enter an e-mail address and receive a password from the Web site. Please check it out. There are some very dedicated individuals working hard to bring the maintenance community this resource for learning.