Quick Access Recorder politic

[JP4]

Good morning Gentlemen,

in my company, our aircraft are equiped with QAR since a long time. Those recorders are keeping a trace of all your flight parameters, they "mark" the tape when you fly outside a predetermined envelope (260 instead of 250Kts below FL100 or engines below "XX" %N1 on final for instance :O ).
Until a while ago, the records remained anonymous, and the FSO was the only person to know and treat the problems. The public information was only showing statistics on every parameter. But our "leaders" are now putting more and more pressure to have a right to know who did what.

I think this is a general attitude in our aviation world.

How do your company deal with that? Do you have a charter in your company which rules the processing of those "highly sensitive" informations?

Thanks for your answers.

[westhawk]

Hi JP4,

I ran across this subject some time ago while doing research on a related matter. The following information applies to US part 135 and 121 operations overseen by the FAA.

Here is a brief summary of the program. What we have is a voluntary safety program called flight operational quality assurance, or FOQA. QAR or FDR data are downloaded to the FOQA office administered by the company safety organization or department and processed into a usable format for analysis. The stated purpose of the program is to collect data on flight quality trends that deviate from established standards so that training and policy may be adjusted in order to reduce safety threats, thereby reducing the chances of future accidents or violations. Data which identifies the particular flight or crew is to be tightly controlled and may not be included in any stored record. Nor is it to be used for diciplinary or enforcement action by the company or FAA against any individuals unless a criminal or willful violation is involved.

Many pilots feel they have good reason not to trust that this data will never be used against them by the company or FAA. Trust is an understandably fragile concept in the aviation racket!

You can read the FAA guidance to it's inspectors here:

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/examiners_inspectors/8400/media/volume1/1_005_02.pdf

Perhaps some similar guidance on your country's regulatory policies regarding the use of this data exists. I hope some protections are provided for.

Best regards,

Westhawk

[JP4]

Westhawk!

"Nor is it to be used for diciplinary or enforcement action by the company or FAA against any individuals unless a criminal or willful violation is involved
Many pilots feel they have good reason not to trust that this data will never be used against them by the company or FAA. Trust is an understandably fragile concept in the aviation racket! "

This is exactly where we are now! Most pilots of the company have no confidence at all in our director of operations (this, following a particular event) , but he's pushing for more access to the data. And has we are a very small company, of course it's easy to check the planning to lift any doubt about the anonymous record! All thepressure is on the FSO shoulder!

Thanks for the link, it's very interesting!