Measuring Success
Dive into Compliance Program Data
By Cristy Minnis, FAA Safety and Compliance Team
The Compliance Program is an integral part of how the FAA’s Flight Standards Service conducts its regulatory oversight. But did you know that Flight Standards is not the only program office in the FAA that incorporates the Compliance Program into its oversight activities? There are actually seven other offices in the FAA that implement the Compliance Program. Those offices are:
- Aircraft Certification Service
- Office of Airports
- Office of Commercial Space Transportation
- Office of Hazardous Materials Safety
- Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service
- Office of National Security Programs and Incident Response
- Office of Aerospace Medicine
The Office of the Chief Counsel also plays a role in the Compliance Program. Together, these offices use the Compliance Program to ensure the safety of everyone operating in the National Airspace System (NAS) and beyond.
Collaborative Compliance
The Compliance Program has changed the way the entire FAA approaches regulatory oversight. Because honest mistakes do occur, especially when operating in complex environments, the Compliance Program strives to promote trust and transparency between the FAA and those we oversee. Our goal is to identify safety issues and correct them as efficiently and effectively as possible. By working collaboratively, we can resolve those safety issues while enhancing the safety performance of individuals and entities operating in the NAS and identify potential areas of risk that may impact others. By analyzing trends in data collected from identified safety issues, we are better able to determine if safety concerns are becoming systemic. When this happens, we can then inform interested parties both within and outside of the FAA.
Our goal is to identify safety issues and correct them as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Since 2015, the FAA has set a course with the Compliance Program to help ensure the highest levels of safety. So how do we measure if the Compliance Program has been successful? Over the last eight years, Flight Standards has taken more than 44,000 compliance actions to address regulatory noncompliances. These compliance actions represent opportunities where the certificate holder and the FAA achieve compliance by working together to mitigate safety concerns. But these are not the only actions that Flight Standards takes. If, through the investigation process, it is determined that a certificate holder is unwilling, unable, or has committed a violation that requires legal enforcement action by law, Flight Standards pursues the appropriate course of action.
Flight Standards initiated more than 9,000 legal and administrative actions since the program started. We are finding that the top regulation cited in an enforcement action for individuals is 14 CFR section 91.13(a), Careless or reckless operation. — “No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another.”
Different Situations
So, what are the types of compliance actions that Flight Standards use to regain compliance? When the Compliance Program was implemented, new types of actions were created for the inspector workforce. Some of these actions consisted of counseling and on-the-spot corrections, whereas others centered around additional training or remedial training efforts. There is no set amount of time for how long it takes to complete a compliance action. Every situation is different, and the action will remain open until compliance is regained. However, based on a cumulative analysis, it takes an average of 30 days for a compliance action to be completed.
There is no set amount of time for how long it takes to complete a compliance action.
We analyze a number of areas of the program, including the number and duration of actions, to determine its success. But these are only surface-level measurements. The success of the program is really based on deeper considerations. One meaningful area that we factor into the success of the program is how often we are seeing certificate holders with repeat noncompliance. With our mission being to find and fix noncompliance in the most effective way and prevent recurrence, we have a vested interest in preventing repeat deviations. In our most recent review of the certificate holders who had a regulatory noncompliance in the last two years, less than 1% had a repeat noncompliance of the same type. We consider this a huge success.
Our mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world, and we will endeavor to ensure the success of that mission with the Compliance Program.
We also look at other indirect indicators of success in applying the principles of the program. Given that one of the tenets of the Compliance Program is to foster an environment of trust, transparency, and collaboration between the FAA and the certificate holders, the program supports the use of voluntary safety reporting programs. When the Compliance Program was implemented, we wanted to ensure that voluntary reporting was not negatively impacted. Since the program’s inception, the voluntary safety reporting programs have seen an increase in submissions to their systems. We also monitor other factors that could be indirect indicators of success including accidents and incidents, as well as pilot deviations. We will continue to analyze the causal factors that contribute to these types of events to determine if there are ways to bring awareness to them, and, as a main objective of the Compliance Program, seek to mitigate similar events in the future.
The Future
As operations in the NAS continue to increase, and innovations are made in the aviation sector, the Compliance Program will continue to evolve along with our oversight activities. Our mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world, and we will endeavor to ensure the success of that mission with the Compliance Program.
Cristy Minnis is the management and program analyst of the FAA’s Safety and Compliance Team.
