ACSF Adds Southern, Southwest Regions To ASAP

The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) expanded its Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) to most of the country, signing memoranda of understanding with the FAA to add the Southern and Southwest regions. The program is already in place in the Eastern, Great Lakes and Western-Pacific Regions, and the ACSF expects the Northwest Mountain region to follow shortly.

The MOUs pave the way for the FAA to work with charter operators, corporate flight departments and fractional program managers that participate in the program. The ACSF’s ASAP is designed to offer smaller operators a safety-reporting program that tracks potential issues without fear of enforcement. The ACSF “de-identifies” the reports to enable other companies to view them and track safety trends. “A confidential, non-punitive reporting program is an important cornerstone to developing a robust safety management system,” said ACSF president Bryan Burns. “Company employees are more likely to report events when they have confidence that their reports will be used to produce positive results, and not to place blame.”

The FAA MOUs are key to growth of the program. ACSF officials maintain that numerous Part 135 and 91 operators have asked to participate, but limited FAA resources have slowed expansion. However, FAA Flight Standards director John Duncan committed to providing resources to the program this spring.