Air Safety: Cooperative Enterprise

The Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) believes that the current uproar over air carrier compliance with FAA airworthiness directives should not lead to rejection of existing aviation safety data reporting programs. CAST says the integrity of aviation safety programs like Voluntary Disclosure Programs (VDP), the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs must be preserved. And the FAA should continue to implement the Air Traffic Safety Action Program, its newly-created voluntary safety reporting program with its air traffic controllers union. “These voluntary programs have saved lives and enhanced safety. Without them commercial aviation safety advancements would be set back decades,” CAST members argue. CAST, a cooperative government-industry initiative was founded in 1998 with a goal to reduce the commercial aviation fatality rate in the United States by 80 percent by 2007. By 2007, CAST was able to report that by implementing the most promising safety enhancements, the fatality rate of commercial air travel in the United States was reduced by 83 percent.