FAA Administrator Michael Huerta met with GA leaders on Monday and urged them to tell their members to avoid weather traps in the coming flying season. Huerta told the leaders at the General Aviation Safety Summit that the GA accident rate has flattened over the last six years and last year there were 259 fatal accidents that killed 449 people. He said “a top priority” with the agency is to reduce those numbers and he asked for help from the leaders. “… I met with general aviation leaders to jump start our efforts for this years flying season and we agreed to work together to raise awareness to prevent weather related accidents for the upcoming flying season,” he said in a statement.
Huerta said the agency is also taking a fresh look at data it already has to see if it can identify safety issues. “Were also working with industry on a prototype program to use de-identified GA operations data in the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program to help identify risks before they become accidents,” Huerta said.
