NASA Forms

NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System offers a wealth of resources on real-world operations. And more.

Jim Wolper

Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 06:26 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: Omar Filipovic

Key Takeaways:

The NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), or "NASA form," allows pilots to anonymously report safety incidents, often providing protection from civil penalties for inadvertent violations if reported within 10 days.
ASRS reports reveal common safety trends such as airspace incursions (including those by UAVs), procedural errors (e.g., low-altitude alerts), maintenance-related problems, challenges with ATC instructions, and improper handling of dangerous goods.
Pilots are encouraged to utilize the ASRS to report all safety concerns, even if caused by others (like ATC), to contribute to a central database that identifies system-wide trends and enhances overall aviation safety.

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It was a fun hangar-flying session, right up until one of the local instructors got serious for a moment. He warned us that the tower at a local Class D airport was “issuing a pilot deviation a week, so have your NASA forms ready.” The alleged violations were mostly for airspace incursions.

I rolled my eyes a little: I had once narrowly missed an airspace incursion there when I got no answer from my radio calls. I did a 360-degree turn to avoid entering the Class D and tried the ground frequency. “Sorry, I had the volume turned down,” was the controller’s response.