Near-Collision Reports Lost, FAA Admits
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it has revamped its method of reporting aerial near-collisions, acknowledging that hundreds of reports from pilots were lost in recent years and never counted.
“We have found some cracks in our system,” FAA Administrator Donald D. Engen said at a news conference. He said that over the years, many reports would “drop into little pockets” of the agency’s bureaucracy and disappear.
According to FAA statistics, at least 352 reports of incidents in which two aircraft came dangerously close to one another were reported to agency regional offices in 1983 and 1984 but were never sent to Washington to be included in the national statistics.
Auditor to Be Hired
Engen said the FAA will soon hire an independent auditor to examine the way it gathers the reports. He said it has already begun to require that raw information on any report be shipped immediately to Washington, where it is analyzed by one central office.
“We will never throw out a report again,” Engen declared.
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