The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) says the FAA should be looking in pilots’ logbooks to help it curtail the GA accident rate. The organization told a recent meeting on the FAA’s data collection process that the agency should “start collecting information on pilot recurrent safety training in addition to the data it already collects on airports, aircraft and aircraft activity,” SAFE said in a news release. “Everyone in the industry knows the importance of recurrent training for aviation safety,” said SAFE Executive Director Doug Stewart. “But there is almost no data on pilot recent experience, time in type of aircraft or the kind of training being used.”
Stewart said that as part of its work on the FAA Loss-of-Control workgroup, his group has noticed that “pilot error” accidents are rarely backed up with documentation on the pilot’s currency and recency. “That’s why we’re asking the FAA to start gathering such data,” Stewart said. “It would help immensely in determining why these kinds of accidents keep occurring.” Most loss-of-control accidents are fatal.
