Clifton Road, MS-D24, Atlanta, GA 30333. Written comments should be received within 60 days of this notice. The mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is to promote safety and health at work for all people through research and prevention. There is evidence that a disproportionate number of all U.S. aircraft crashes occur in Alaska.
Aviation crashes are now the leading cause of occupational fatalities in Alaska.
To address this compelling occupational issue in Alaska, Congress supported implementation of a federal initiative to reduce aviation- related injuries and fatalities. The purpose of this joint initiative is to reduce the number of aircraft crashes and deaths, and promote aviation safety within the air transportation industry in Alaska. As part of these initiatives, air carrier operators and pilots will be surveyed to obtain information on what they perceive are the risks and hazards contributing to aircraft accidents in Alaska, their opinions about current safety programs, and what they think could be done to improve aviation safety. This information will be analyzed to identify common risk factors, compare them to risk factors identified from analysis of accident reports and published literature, and assess the effectiveness of current and new potential safety interventions. These findings will be useful to Alaska's air transportation industry for trend information to evaluate interventions.