FAA Expands “Lessons Learned” Safety Website

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently added six new accident modules to its one-of-a-kind “Lessons Learned” online and publicly available safety library. The library captures valuable information learned from some of the world’s most historically significant accidents.

New modules include:

• 1960: Capital Airlines Viscount (Turbine Engine Icing, Engine Isolation)

• 1995: Atlantic Southeast EMB-120 (Structural Inspection, Propeller Blade Failure)

• 1996: Birgenair B757 (Avionics Confusion, Cockpit Resource Management)

• 1997: Fine Air DC-8 (Cargo Loading, Organizational Safety Oversight)

• 2000: Air France Concorde (Fuel Tank Structural Integrity, Minor Repair Processes)

• 2008: British Airways B777 (Fuel System Icing, Engine Isolation)

The library’s collection now totals 76 modules, with almost 20,000 subscribers. The initiative began with the release of 10 modules just six years ago.

Each module relies heavily on multimedia as a means to educate and engage the aviation community. Creative combinations of videos, animations, and photographs make the information easy to follow and understand in just 30 minutes, even for an aviation novice.

Learning from the past can help keep future accidents from occurring under similar circumstances or for similar reasons. Lessons learned modules cover a wide range of operational, maintenance, and design issues, and go through months of vetting by FAA employees, aviation industry experts and other international regulatory authorities. This coordination ensures the content is accurate, complete and internationally relevant.

You can research the Lessons Learned library at: http://lessonslearned.faa.gov/