Recent, similar efforts involving the FAA and the GA community are picking up in tempo. Youve already seen some of the institutional changes: relaxed certification standards for installing advisory angle-of-attack indicators and the new rash of all-electronic attitude indicators, among others, which are designed to help minimize the classic loss-of-control inflight accident. These and other outcomes may be producing tangible results, but its too early to be sure. Regardless, by using a data-driven approach and producing specific safety enhancements, these efforts are creating some useful outcomes for GA pilots. The way this came to be is an example of why you never want to see sausage made.
The FAA's data-driven, proactive "Safer Skies" initiative, particularly through the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), achieved significant reductions in fatal airline accidents since the mid-1990s.
Early efforts to improve General Aviation (GA) safety, including the initial GAJSC and FITS program, did not initially lead to substantial reductions in accident rates.
GA safety efforts were reinvigorated around 2011 with the re-chartering of the GAJSC to use data-driven analysis for specific "safety enhancements" (SEs) and the introduction of new Airman Certification Standards (ACS).
Despite a recent decrease in GA fatal accident rates, the article cautions against directly attributing this solely to current initiatives, suggesting other factors like pilot demographics may also play a role.
Since the mid-1990s, the FAA has worked proactively with the aviation community to reduce fatal aviation accidents. This has worked spectacularly well with the airlines, which are much more tightly regulated than general aviation, and the safety record shows it. Until recently, however, these efforts haven’t trickled deep down to GA. That’s changing.
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