Some air carriers have been improperly reporting negative trends in vendors, manufacturer equipment, training and procedural problems to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s Service Difficulty Report (SDR), leading to "poor data integrity," the FAA said in a release.
The FAA released an Information for Operators (InFO) to remind air carriers to input this data into the Service Difficulty Report (SDR) in a format up the standards of the FAA, as outlined in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The reports should include, among other information, detailed identification of the aircraft, operator, and the failure, malfunction or defect.
Currently, all SDR reports undergo an inspection by the FAA every two years before being reported to the Safety Assurance System database where it can be used to detect trends "necessary to proactively mitigate risk."
If there continues to be improper reporting the FAA, as noted in an InFo, may need to carry out inspections more frequently to "ensure proper air carrier reporting."
