Aviation Safety Reporting System

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The Aviation Safety Reporting System, or ASRS, is the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) voluntary confidential reporting system that allows pilots, air traffic controllers, cabin crew, dispatchers, maintenance technicians, ground operations, and UAS operators and drone flyers to confidentially report near misses or close call events in the interest of improving aviation safety. The ASRS collects, analyzes, and responds to voluntarily submitted aviation safety incident reports in order to reduce the likelihood of aviation accidents.^[1] The ASRS was designed and is operated by NASA, who is seen as a neutral third-party due to its lack of enforcement authority and relations with airlines. The confidential and independent nature of the ASRS is key to its long-term success in identifying numerous latent system hazards in the National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA extends limited immunity to individual aviation workers for reporting safety events which do not result in an accident, as defined by the FAA. This has the effect of encouraging these potential reporters to come forward with systemic safety issues without fear of reprisal. The success of the system stands as a positive example used as a model by other industries seeking to make improvements in safety. Other industries who have modeled similar systems on the ASRS include the rail, medical, firefighters, and off-shore petroleum production.