New Risk Assessment Tool Available from FAA
The FAA this week released a new Information for Operators dealing with risk assessment, and specifically how it relates to a safety-management system.

The FAA this week released a new Information for Operators dealing with risk assessment, and specifically how it relates to a safety-management system. The tool discusses the various risks associated with a flight, how to handle them and what may be considered an acceptable risk. According to the document, “A risk assessment tool should allow operators and pilots to see the risk profile of a flight in its planning stages.” It goes on to say that the operator or pilot must, upon assessing the risk, decide if the flight is acceptable given the current criteria, or if the risk must be reduced in some way before the flight is taken. The document includes a sample risk-assessment tool, a lengthy checklist of various risk factors that would allow a crew to carefully analyze the risk of the flight. According to the document, the FAA will be encouraging operators to adopt such tools over the next few years.