Recommendation: To enhance FAA's efforts to improve general aviation safety, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to improve measures of general aviation activity by requiring the collection of the number of hours that general aviation aircraft fly over a period of time (flight hours). FAA should explore ways to do this that minimize the impact on the general aviation community, such as by collecting the data at regular events (e.g., during registration renewals or at annual maintenance inspections) that are already required.
Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open
Comments: In July 2019, GAO confirmed that FAA still does not plan to collect General Aviation (GA) flight hour data during registration renewals or annual maintenance inspections because this would require rulemaking and could have a significant economic and paperwork impact on the GA industry. While FAA has made changes to the GA Activity Survey to improve the accuracy of the flight hour data collected for a sample of GA populations, FAA still does not plan to collect all GA flight hour data as part of its GA Activity Survey. GAO maintains that without comprehensive GA flight hour data, estimates from the GA Activity Survey may not be sufficient for drawing conclusions about changes in crash rates over time and that more precise flight hour data could allow FAA to better target its safety efforts within the GA industry.
Recommendation: To enhance FAA's efforts to improve general aviation safety, and to ensure that ongoing safety issues are addressed, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to set specific general aviation safety improvement goals--such as targets for fatal accident reductions--for individual industry segments using a datadriven, risk management approach.
Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open
Comments: In July 2019, GAO confirmed that FAA still does not plan to develop safety targets for different segments of the General Aviation (GA) industry. While FAA's General Aviation Joint Steering Committee was exploring metrics for monitoring different GA industry segments, it was determined that developing credible metrics was not feasible using the GA Activity Survey. GAO maintains that FAA needs to develop specific general aviation safety improvement targets for individual industry segments to support a data-driven, risk management approach.
Recommendation: To enhance FAA's efforts to improve general aviation safety, and to determine whether the programs and activities underlying the 5-year strategy are successful and if additional actions are needed, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to develop performance measures for each significant program and activity underlying the 5-year strategy.
Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open
Comments: FAA reported it established performance measures for significant programs and activities underlying its 5-year strategy. However, as of July 2019 FAA has still not provided GAO with documentation of these performance measures. Without this documentation, GAO cannot confirm that the agency has developed performance measures for each significant program and activity underlying its 5-year strategy.
