ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a brief description of non-punitive incident reporting. The incident reporting was required by the Australian Air Navigation Regulations and, because of superb and far from typical administration, was unique in the aviation world. The Flight Safety Awareness Program seminars included a discussion of basic interview techniques and of the kind of human factors data that is too often not included in routine incident reporting. Through the Aviation Safety Reporting System, members of the aviation community were offered anonymity and limited immunity to individuals who reported incidents that identified deficiencies and discrepancies in the aviation system before they caused accidents or incidents. Despite all of these difficulties, the safety potential of an effective non-punitive incident reporting program makes its achievement a very worthwhile goal. Immunity is a critical issue because pilots will not report if reporting can put them in any sort of jeopardy. Therefore, all incident reporting programs have the immunity problem.
