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What Makes a Great Actionable ASAP (Aviation Safety Action Program) Report?

  • Published
  • By SSgt Matt Mueller
  • AMC Ops RAMS
TMF Fall 2014 --  

You just finished your sortie and you think, "Wow, that was a challenging flight ... and others can learn from what just occurred. However, how can I get the information to them?" One outstanding way is to submit an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) report. Now you may have a few questions:
  • What should I include in the report?
  • How detailed should the report be?
  • What kind of outcome do I expect ... policy change or crew awareness?
  • Should I include my frustration with the system?

The ASAP Scoreboard can be found at https://www.usaf-mfoqa.com/safety-asap/cac_html/index.html, and the information is taken directly from the ASAP submission. The Scoreboard has the submitter's description of the event and, if included, will have his/her suggestion to correct the situation. The Resolution section is AMC's response to the reported ASAP and will include action taken, if any, or reiterate the "moral of the story" and "track for trends." AMC takes this seriously and makes every attempt to take action on any ASAP that presents an actionable event. Sometimes we get an ASAP that barely gives enough detail to understand the situation and/or gives little suggestion to the situation. This leaves us to guess or speculate on the situation ... and we won't.

So what is a well written ASAP? For starters, it has enough content and detail to understand fully the situation regardless of crew position or aircraft experience. It will also have supporting evidence and a suggestion of what needs to be done to correct the situation. The suggestions can vary from "As an instructor, I should have given more attention to the student's actions ..." or "The T.O. changed, and it put the checklist steps out of order, causing a safety concern ..."

As you can see, the first suggestion is to give awareness to fellow instructors to be aware of student actions, while the second suggestion is an actionable item, so AMC looks at the checklist steps within the new Tech Order. This is where we, as Ops RAMS, coordinate with the correct SMEs to ensure the suggested correction is given serious attention and change is made, if warranted. To alleviate confusion, consider the following when writing your report.
  • Include detailed information
  • Paint the picture of the situation
  • Make a suggestion to correct the issue (you're the expert, so let us know what needs to be done)
  • Say exactly what needs to be done--don't expect us to guess
  • Include facts and/or proven statistics
  • Don't include emotion and personal bias

Paint the picture of the situation and how it evolved, if needed. Here is an example of a bad and good event description:
  • The sun settled on the horizon and I flew fast.
  • The sunlight beaming off the ocean water created a glare in the PF windshield, resulting in temporary blindness and the inadvertent increase in approach speed.

The second description clarifies that the issue can only be replicated with the sun in the correct position and that the pilot inadvertently increased the approach speed. The first scenario sounds as if the two are not connected. Sometimes ASAP reports lack the detail needed to fully understand the scenario. Details can include but aren't limited to altitudes, direction(s) of travel, aircraft settings, crew content, and checklist step. You must provide enough information when writing the ASAP so that there is no guess about what occurred. Detailed reports and suggestions have led to the correction of many procedures within the MAF. Here are a few examples of incomplete reports:

ASAP #816 reads:

"Visually located other aircraft above our position, corrected down immediately, but visually confirmed clear of the other aircraft. Better CRM monitoring of aircraft on TCAS."

After reading this ASAP, some questions arose. How close was the other aircraft? How did the two aircraft get in this situation? Other questions may exist. This situation warranted some crew intervention, but I'm sure it has information and details that will help another aircrew. However, it lacks the details to fully understand what happened.

ASAP #874 reads:

"Climbed above assigned altitude of 160 by 400 ft."

Again, this screams of the need for additional information. Why did you climb too high? Were you task saturated? Was there a physiological issue that caused you to climb above the assigned altitude? I assume the submitter meant FL160 or 16,000 ft., and not 160 ft., but it wasn't made clear. Take the time to give readers (fellow aircrew members) the necessary information that allows them to learn from the situation.

Now don't forget, the ASAP is shared with the SMEs within the HQ AMC staff only after it has been redacted to protect YOUR identity! Note: I didn't say it was anonymous. Don't be afraid to add your contact information; your identity will not be revealed. The ASAP Program office can use that information to gather additional information if needed, but your identity will NOT be shared with anyone! With that said, the ASAP program isn't a "blog" or "social media" area to post emotion or personal bias. Please consider the facts and not the emotion when writing an ASAP. A comment such as "They don't know what they are doing" (broadly referring to a career field) has no place in the ASAP report. The Air Force trains highly skilled Airmen in many career fields that know their jobs. A negative blanket statement will not help the situation. In fact, it can make it worse. We need a recommended solution that does not include emotion. If you discover a discrepancy in training or policy, please write an ASAP to identify the issue and then provide a solution, if able.

An ASAP report should provide information to other crews, or HQ SMEs, to help prevent accidents from occurring. Painting a complete picture of the situation helps everyone understand what happened. So don't forget the details of the ASAP report ... they are important and will help drive your point home!