The

A Comair Central Air Safety Committee PublicationSPRING 2009

Rebirth ofASAP

at Comair

The 30th Anniversary CRJ900 sits underneath the saucer-shaped roof of Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy Airport. Delta’s Terminal 3 was a landmark structure when built in 1960 for Pan Am. The four-acre roof with its large overhang was designed to keep passengers dry while boarding planes in uncovered jet bridges. It was renamed the Pan Am Worldport in 1971 when Boeing 747s began parking at its gates.

Now, the ASAP Event Review Com-mittee with representatives from the pilots union, the FAA, and the Comair Corporate Flight Safety Department will investigate all safety incidents. The Chief Pilot’s Office will no longer investigate safety incidents if the pilot is participating in ASAP.

Once a report is accepted into the ASAP program, the FAA has agreed not to suspend pilot certificates or pursue civil fines for mistakes. Comair managers have agreed to halt any parallel investigation into incidents accepted into ASAP and not to pursue company discipline.

The most discipline a pilot partici-pating in ASAP will receive is a Let-ter of Warning from the FAA. This letter stays on the pilot’s file for two years. Letters of Warning are rare. Since 2004, Comair has received 5,147 ASAP reports, and only 70 Letters of Warning have been issued by the FAA.

The new agreements and manual should lay the foundation for building trust between pilots and company managers. This trust is essential because, without pilot participation, ASAP cannot succeed.

The new ASAP program is designed to quickly insulate pilots from disci-plinary action to keep the focus on im-provements to safety versus punish-ment for mistakes.

“Protection for a pilot now begins the minute they make the phone call to the ASAP Hotline,” said Captain Chris Obertin, an ALPA Safety mem-ber and representative on the ASAP Event Review Committee. “Now, the investigation of ASAP events has officially shifted from the Chief Pilot’s Office and Flight Operations to Comair’s Corporate Flight Safety Department. We believe this new program will be very successful.”

By Dean Weaver, CRJ 50 First OfficerThis month safety at Comair takes an enormous leap forward now that the airline industry’s most powerful tool to identify safety threats is returned to pilots.

The Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) is back after Comair man-agers, pilot union leaders, and Fed-eral Aviation Administration officials agreed to a better-defined process that stipulates how pilots are shielded from disciplinary action if they are willing to explain their mistakes.

A two-party Letter of Agreement between the union and the company creates a new administrative manual that details exactly how each ASAP report will be accepted into the pro-gram. A three-party Memorandum of Understanding between the union, the company, and the Federal Aviation Ad-ministration also has been approved.

Photo by Brian Futterman

Please see ASAP page 2

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InSIde…ASAP Definitions

Frequently Asked ASAP Questions

Important ASAP Info

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ASAPContinued from page 1

The language in the new agreements takes any gray areas out of the ASAP process. Pilots and airline managers have clear guidance on how to handle any safety incident, said Captain Matt Sanderson, manager of Comair Corporate Flight Safety.

“I think having the additional protec-tion from company discipline will foster a healthier reporting climate,” Sanderson said. “As pilots we must realize this is our ASAP program, and the more safety issues we report, the more safety issues we can address.”

The most obvious change pilots will see when submitting an ASAP report is that now it is all done electronically via the Internet. The old tear and fax sheets are gone. No more wonder-ing if the fax machine on the other end was working after submitting an ASAP report.

The confirmation that a report is received is instantaneous, and the typed narratives should be easier for everyone to read. This system will not “time out” like electronic Irregular Operations Reports and should be more user-friendly.

The ASAP Hotline number will still exist, and pilots are required to notify the ASAP Event Review Committee by phone within 24 hours after the end of the flight sequence on the day of the occurrence. This early notifica-tion is one of the requirements for an ASAP report to be accepted.

The new Internet-filed reports will be done via a Web-Based Application Tool (WBAT). Pilots will be given a user name and password that allows them to log on and create a profile with an e-mail and home address. Once a case is closed, pilots will be notified by e-mail.

Yet the most significant changes to this next-generation ASAP go far beyond report appearances. A very detailed process has been put in place that dictates how each ASAP submission is handled from the mo-ment the pilot clicks “Send” on the

computer screen until the de-identi-fied case is closed.

ASAP reports are de-identified by removing the flight numbers, dates, and names from the event. All data is kept in a secure room. Swipe card access is given to only a handful of Safety Department personnel at Comair. Airline managers can see the analysis of safety trends at Comair but will not be given access to indi-vidual cases unless they have been de-identified for training purposes.

Once pilots tell airline managers, in-cluding a chief pilot, that they are using ASAP, all company investigations in-volving the incident are referred to the ASAP ERC. However, airline managers are still allowed to discuss time-critical issues with pilots after an incident. These conversations may include drug testing, health and well-being of indi-viduals, integrity of aircraft and other equipment, or removal from duty.

If the pilot’s ASAP report is later re-jected for any reason, the information he provides in the ASAP report re-mains confidential and cannot be used by the company or FAA for discipline, unless it is excluded for the “Big 5.”

Pilot reports will not remain confiden-tial if reports are rejected for the “Big 5,” which include:

Criminal activity h

Substance abuse h

Controlled substances h

Alcohol h

Intentional falsification h

Pilots who submit reports rejected for the “Big 5” are subject to FAA enforcement action, law enforcement action, and discipline by the company. Rejection of reports for these reasons is extremely rare. Since the inception of ASAP at Comair, there has never been a report rejected for the “Big 5.”

The ASAP ERC also has the ability to vote unanimously to reject a report for “intentional disregard for safety.” This also is a rare occurrence. Of the 5,147 ASAP reports received at Comair, only 17 were rejected for “intentional disregard for safety.”

ASAP reports rejected for “intentional disregard for safety” cannot be used by the FAA or Comair to discipline a pilot. Nor can statements made to the ASAP ERC be used by Comair in any type of disciplinary action. Instead, the FAA and Comair may conduct independent investigations into the incident. Both the company and FAA may use information gathered from aircraft flight data recorders, main-tenance logbooks, and radar tapes when investigating a pilot for “inten-tional disregard for safety.”

The only other reason to reject an ASAP report is for timeliness. The ASAP ERC must be notified within 24 hours from the end of the duty day for the date of the occurrence. This can be done by calling the ASAP Hotline and answering a few ques-tions. A full ASAP report must be submitted within five days of the initial telephone notification.

Please see ASAP page 3

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Please share any ideas, questions, or comments you have with us.

Editor: Dean Weaver

E-mail: Dean.Weaver@alpa.org

Mail inquiries to: Comair MEC

Attn: Leading Edge 3490 Olympic Blvd., Suite 120

Erlanger, KY 41018

The Leading Edge is a quarterly publication produced by volunteer Comair pilots who are members of ALPA’s Central Air Safety Committee. The goal of the com-mittee is to promote and enhance safety at Comair.

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Spring 2009

ASAPContinued from page 2

Once an ASAP report is accepted, the ASAP ERC will examine each report and look for systemic latent safety threats. Once having identified these safety concerns, the ERC can work with airline managers, dispatch-ers, mechanics, schedulers, air traffic control supervisors, and pilots to ad-dress any threats to safety. The goal is accident prevention.

The ASAP ERC may ask pilots to par-ticipate in a Crew Resource Manage-ment debrief of the event or partici-pate in additional simulator training or line-operating experience. The goal of this additional training is to improve pilot proficiency. The training must be completed to the satisfaction of the ERC, but it is not considered a line check and is not included in the pilot’s training records.

Training events are rare, with about 200 scheduled since the inception of the program. Every Comair pilot has passed his or her ASAP assigned training event, Sanderson said.

Another change to ASAP is a clause in the two-party Letter of Agree-ment that preserves the integrity of the program even if tensions arise between participants.

The agreement has a 30-day “resolu-tion period” between union leaders and Comair managers. During this 30-day period, the ASAP program will continue as usual, with the ERC reviewing ASAP reports. It requires the head of the Comair MEC to meet with the president of Comair to address the ASAP safety concerns. At the end of 30 days, the two must meet again before any suspension of ASAP is permitted.h

ASAP definitionsASAP duties: The Event Review Committee (ERC) may assign to pilots making an ASAP report these duties, which might include a crew resource management debrief, interviews, and simulator training. Also required might be additional operating experi-ence with a line check airman; however, it is not a line check. The goal is to learn about the causes of mistakes and prevent future mistakes as well as to train pilots to correct any deficiencies. These ASAP duties must be completed to the satisfaction of the ERC. However, they do not include evaluated events such as line proficiency checks or orals.

Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP): Designed by the FAA to encourage air carri-ers and their employees to voluntarily report safety information that may be critical to identifying potential precursors to accidents. Safety issues are resolved through corrective action rather than through punishment or discipline. It provides a method for the collection, analysis, and retention of safety data. The FAA began this industry-wide program in March 2000. The program came to Comair in 2004.

event Review Committee (eRC): This group of three people reviews and analyzes all ASAP cases. The group has a representative from ALPA’s Central Air Safety Commit-tee, Comair Corporate Flight Safety, and the FAA’s Flight Standards District Office. This group of three meets on a regular basis and must reach a unanimous consensus on each individual case when it comes to corrective actions or assigning ASAP duties. It takes a unanimous vote of this group to reject a report.

Letter of Correction: Issued to the pilot by the FAA demonstrating that corrective ac-tions by the pilot were completed. This stays in the pilot’s record for two years.

Letter of no Action: Issued to the pilot by the FAA showing there was insufficient evi-dence to prove a violation. It remains on file for 30 days.

Letter of Warning: Issued to the pilot by the FAA showing no ERC resolution was reached. It remains on file for two years.

Sole-Source Report: This is an important term because it determines the level of disci-pline a pilot may receive when submitting an ASAP report. A sole-source report pro-vides the ASAP ERC with information that would otherwise be unobtainable. Because this information is vital to improving safety, a pilot will not receive any discipline from the FAA for a sole-source report accepted into ASAP.

A sole source is defined as: when the only source reporting the event is the pilot(s) through ASAP report(s).

Example of sole-source report—an incident reported by a crew that nearly forgot to extend the landing gear but remembered in time to safely complete the landing without incident, unless reported by someone other than the flight crew.

non–Sole Source: Every ASAP report is assumed to be sole source to the FAA, unless determined to be otherwise known through FAA internal channels. An ASAP report that involves an incident that the FAA has learned about from Air Traffic Control or an FAA inspector or through channels other than the ASAP ERC is non–sole source.

The FAA has agreed not to suspend pilot certificates or pursue fines against a pilot whose ASAP report is accepted by the ERC. However, a pilot may receive a letter of warning for an FAR violation for a non–sole-source report if the FAA deems it neces-sary. This letter of warning is the toughest disciplinary measure allowed under ASAP. It stays on the pilot’s record for two years.

Examples of a non−sole-source report:A crew files an ASAP report stating that it failed to level off at its assigned alti-1. tude. The FAA receives a deviation notice through its Daily Report.

A crew files an ASAP report discussing a GPWS terrain event. The FAA receives 2. an FAA Hotline complaint from a passenger who was frightened by the abrupt EGPWS recovery maneuvers during this flight.

A crew lands at the wrong airport by mistake. The event is common knowledge. 3. h

ASAP Hotline 1-866-274-7088(Call within 24 hours at the end of the duty day)

Electronic reports are submitted to: www.comairsafety.comNote: The ASAP program will be activated later this month. Pilots should continue to use NASA’s Aviation Safety Report System until ASAP is active. Incidents filed prior to ASAP’s being activated will not be grandfathered into the ASAP program.

ImPortAntASAP

Info:

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FAQsPrepared by Dean Weaver, CRJ 50 First Officer/Air Safety Committee Member

What happens when I call the ASAP Hotline within 24 hours of the end of the duty day when the incident occurred?

The pilot is protected, and any •separate investigation by the company or Federal Aviation Ad-ministration is halted. Any inves-tigation conducted under ASAP will be done confidentially by the ASAP Event Review Committee and Comair Corporate Flight Safety. The chief pilots and other managers will not have access to these confidential reports and subsequent investigations. Some of the de-identified information may later be used for training purposes.

The report is de-identified by re-•moving the flight number, names of crewmembers, and date of the event.

The Chief Pilot’s Office and •ALPA status representatives have agreed to abide by any cor-rective actions set forth by the ASAP Event Review Committee.

An Irregular Ops Report must •still be filed within 24 hours, but the pilot can have this report reviewed by ALPA Safety Com-mittee members prior to sub-mission. Remember, an IOR is done to let the company know of an event. It is not the time for confession or the time to ana-lyze how the mistake could have been prevented. IORs are not de-identified and classified like ASAP reports.

A chief pilot or other Comair •manager may contact the pilot to discuss matters of operational

Frequently Asked ASAP Questions

necessity such as drug testing, health and well-being of individu-als, integrity of equipment, or removal of a pilot from opera-tion. Pilots may discuss these time-critical matters, but they need to let managers know they are participating in ASAP.

do BOTH pilots have to submit ASAP reports and notify the hotline individually?

YES• , the ASAP ERC must be notified within 24 hours of the event. Each pilot must submit an electronic report as soon as pos-sible but no later than five days after the event.

If the pilot was unaware of an •event, such as an ATC devia-tion, a later submission may be accepted. Pilots have 24 hours to submit a report upon learn-ing they have been involved in a non−sole-source event.

What if my ASAP report is later rejected?

If the report is rejected, the •company and the FAA may start their own independent investi-gations. However, neither the company nor the FAA can use the pilot’s ASAP narrative in the investigation. Nor can written or verbal statements made to the ERC or Corporate Flight Safety be used in these independent investigations. The only time an ASAP report can be used is if it is rejected for the “Big 5,” which include criminal activity, substance abuse, controlled sub-stances, alcohol, and intentional falsification.

ASAP reports are off-limits for •reports rejected for “reckless disregard for safety.” But the FAA and Comair may use data

such as radar tapes, mainte-nance logbooks, or flight data recorders when gathering information for an independent investigation.

How are ASAP duties assigned to pilots?

Participants may be asked to •do a debrief so the ERC repre-sentatives or Corporate Flight Safety staff can identify trends or causes and work to prevent future mistakes at the airline. A pilot may be assigned a train-ing event in the simulator and retrained to proficiency. The program does not allow the company to counsel, suspend, or discharge any participant, or to issue a letter of warning. The FAA cannot suspend or revoke the license of a pilot who is accepted into ASAP. However, the FAA may issue a letter of warning, which will remain on file for two years, or issue a letter of no action, which is on file for 30 days.

A pilot’s ASAP duties could •require additional training, such as a simulator event, but the company will not conduct evaluation events such as line checks, proficiency checks, or oral checks.

Most of the time a pilot will •receive an e-mail to sign in to the secure ASAP website, known as WBAT, to read a new message. The message may simply thank the pilot for participating in ASAP and tell him the case is closed. Additionally, the message may offer some areas for the pilot to review to address the event. Sometimes, the pilot may receive a phone call with some advice to prevent a future mistake.h