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Learn About the Safety Data - AIDS

Aviation Accident and Incident Database

Background
The FAA Accident and Incident Data System (AIDS) database contains incident data records for all categories of civil aviation . Incidents are events that do not meet the aircraft damage or personal injury thresholds contained in the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) definition of an accident. For example, the database contains reports of collisions between aircraft and birds while on approach to or departure from an airport. While such a collision may not have resulted in sufficient aircraft damage to reach the damage threshold of an NTSB accident, the fact that the collision occurred is valuable safety information that may be used in the establishment of aircraft design standards or in programs to deter birds from nesting in areas adjacent to airports.

Using the Database
Things You Should Know
The FAA issues a separate report for each aircraft involved in an aviation incident. The FAA Accident and Incident Data System (AIDS) database contains incidents that occurred between 1978 and the present. The current system is being revised to reflect the full narrative on all incident reports with an active event date of January 1, 1995 or greater. This will apply to approximately 10,000 reports.

The data is presented in a report format divided into the following categories: Location information, Aircraft Information, Operator Information, Narrative, Findings, Weather/Environmental Information, and Pilot Information.

The FAA Accident and Incident Data System (AIDS) database can be used to:

  • browse FAA's aviation incident information
  • count aircraft involved in FAA's aviation incidents
  • select FAA's incident reports based on:
    • user supplied words or phrases
    • user selected criteria, including:
      • report number
      • date range
      • state
      • aircraft registration number
      • aircraft make and model
      • operator/airline (Part 121 only)
      • type of operation
      • airport identification,

      OR

    • a combination of both user supplied words or phrases AND user selected criteria

    Types of Search
    Textual search across all data fields is provided. Identifying additional information prior to the search can also narrow the search: Report Number, Start/End Dates, State Code, Aircraft Registration Number, Aircraft Make/Model, Operator/Airline, Type of Operation (FAR Part) and Airport Identifier. Counts presented are of aircraft involved in aviation incidents, and, in general, will exceed the counts of events themselves. Keyword searches using just the text search box will not always return the same number of records as searches conducted using the additional fields on the query screen. This is because the text search box searches for all occurrences of a word or string throughout the report, whereas a field on the search form is tied to a single field on the report.