Notice of Order Designating U.S. Aviation Safety Team (USAST) Information as Protected From Disclosure

Issuing agencies

Abstract

This action affirms the order and responds to comments received in response to the Notice published on August 1, 2025, regarding designating U.S Aviation Safety Team (USAST) information as protected from disclosure. The Notice proposed that safety and security information as described below be designated by an FAA Order as protected from disclosure in accordance with the provisions of the rule entitled Protection of Voluntarily Submitted Information. The designation is intended to encourage persons to voluntarily provide information to the FAA through the USAST, supporting a collaborative, data-driven strategy to reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal aviation incidents and accidents.

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 207 (Wednesday, October 28, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 207 (Wednesday, October 28, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67893-67896]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-21964]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

[Docket No. FAA-2025-1193]


Notice of Order Designating U.S. Aviation Safety Team (USAST) 
Information as Protected From Disclosure

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of 
Transportation.

ACTION: Notice of order.

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SUMMARY: This action affirms the order and responds to comments 
received in response to the Notice published on August 1, 2025, 
regarding designating U.S Aviation Safety Team (USAST) information as 
protected from disclosure. The Notice proposed that safety and security 
information as described below be designated by an FAA Order as 
protected from disclosure in accordance with the provisions of the rule 
entitled Protection of Voluntarily Submitted Information. The 
designation is intended to encourage persons to voluntarily provide 
information to the FAA through the USAST, supporting a collaborative, 
data-driven strategy to reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal aviation 
incidents and accidents.

DATES: October 28, 2026.

ADDRESSES: For information on where to obtain copies of documents and 
other information related to this action, see ``How to Obtain 
Additional Information'' in this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brian Boardman, U.S. Aviation Safety 
Team Secretariat, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590, Email: 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6705150e06094905080615030a06092701060649000811"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9cfeeef5fdf2b2fef3fdeef8f1fdf2dcfafdfdb2fbf3ea">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>, Telephone: 771-333-1247.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Under 49 U.S.C. 40123, certain voluntarily provided safety and 
security information is protected from disclosure to encourage persons 
to provide the information to the FAA. The FAA's rules for implementing 
49 U.S.C. 40123 are in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 
CFR) part 193. The FAA must first issue an order specifying why the 
agency finds that the information should be protected. If the FAA 
Administrator issues an order designating information as protected 
under 49 U.S.C. 40123, that information will not be disclosed under the 
Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) or other laws except as 
provided in part 193, and as provided in the order designating the 
information as protected. This order to protect the USAST information 
from disclosure is issued under 14 CFR 193.11, which sets out the 
notice procedure for designating information as protected.

Applicability

    This final order will be applicable to any FAA organization that 
receives safety information covered under this designation from a core 
member, general member, or other invited participant of the USAST, 
aviation community safety team, or working group chartered by the 
USAST. The final order will also apply to any other government agency 
that receives such information from the FAA. For any other government 
agency to receive USAST information protected from disclosure under 
this designation from the FAA, the agency receiving the protected 
information must first comply with the procedure set forth in 14 CFR 
193.7(e) and this order.
    A core member of the USAST is a voting organization expected to be 
represented at every USAST meeting (this includes but is not limited to 
operators, aviation industry associations, and original equipment 
manufacturers). A general member of the USAST is an organization that 
is expected to attend USAST when topics pertinent to their domain of 
expertise are covered (this includes, but is not limited to industry 
safety groups, industry labor associations, and specialized industry 
associations).

Description of the Safety Information To Be Protected

    The FAA designates certain system-level safety issue information 
voluntarily provided through the USAST as protected from disclosure. 
These protections extend only to information covered in Section B of 
this document. The USAST is a collaborative leadership body 
representing U.S. industry and government stakeholders across the 
aviation community. It evolved from the legacy Commercial Aviation 
Safety Team (CAST) to bring together stakeholders from across aviation 
communities and offer a new approach and tools for addressing systemic 
aviation safety issues. The USAST encompasses (but is not limited to) 
air navigation service providers, air carriers and operators, 
crewmembers, aerospace

[[Page 67894]]

manufacturers, aerospace domain associations (i.e., labor unions, 
standards bodies, etc.), and aviation community safety teams.
    Aviation community safety teams are government-industry 
partnerships that work to improve aviation safety by collectively 
analyzing aviation safety data to identify emerging issues and develop 
strategies to address and prioritize safety issues. Participation in an 
aviation community safety team is entirely voluntary. These teams rely 
on the voluntary submission of proprietary industry safety data to 
develop informed mitigations/communications appropriate to their 
communities. Aviation community safety teams develop voluntary safety 
enhancements as intervention strategies to prevent or mitigate risk in 
the NAS. Existing aviation community safety teams include the 
Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), General Aviation Joint Safety 
Committee (GAJSC), U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), Drone Safety 
Team (DST), and their working groups.
    The USAST is led by two executive-level chairpersons: one selected 
from the aviation industry and one from the U.S. Government (an FAA 
employee selected by the FAA Administrator). The FAA also participates 
in the USAST with multiple FAA lines of business as core members. This 
designation applies only to non-FAA members of the USAST, aviation 
community safety teams, and workgroups chartered by the USAST. As such, 
this designation should not be construed as an opportunity for the FAA 
to protect data it obtains non-voluntarily and provides to the USAST. 
The core function of the USAST is to improve aviation safety through 
voluntary participation in safety analysis to address potential 
systemic safety issues.
    A system-level safety issue is anything that involves a potential 
hazard that affects one or more segments of the aviation industry or 
affects multiple entities within a single segment of the industry. As 
part of the system-level safety issue lifecycle, the USAST relies on 
voluntary identification and submission of safety issues from the 
aviation industry and aviation community safety teams. Prior to a 
system-level safety issue arising to the USAST it is generally worked 
through an appropriate aviation community safety team to ensure that 
the issue is systemic and has all the necessary supporting information 
and data. The USAST may also conduct safety promotion activities with 
the aviation industry to communicate safety issues and/or safety 
enhancements to the appropriate aviation community safety team for 
awareness.
    Non-FAA USAST members aviation community safety teams and 
workgroups chartered by the USAST, submit voluntary provided aviation 
safety issues to the USAST. Safety issues submitted to the USAST are 
considered ``FAA-received'' at the moment of submission because of the 
FAA's role as USAST co-chair.. The information the FAA receives from 
the USAST comes in through different formats. These formats may include 
USAST meeting agendas, meeting minutes, presentations, reports, and 
analyses. The information provided in these documents is voluntarily 
provided to the USAST and FAA release of this information would 
jeopardize industry participation and reduce the willingness of the 
aviation industry to submit voluntary safety data to the USAST.
    USAST risk management processes fully rely on confidence that 
voluntarily submitted safety and security information is protected from 
disclosure. Protection of voluntarily provided system-level safety 
issue information allows the USAST to appropriately assess the 
information without the potential negative effects from involuntary 
release of the information. The voluntary contributions from aviation 
stakeholders to the USAST are core components to the success of these 
teams and programs. Without certain protections for USAST information, 
reports, data, and work products could not be protected by the U.S. 
Government, which would prevent the FAA from working with the aviation 
industry to develop proactive voluntary safety enhancements to mitigate 
systemic risk in the NAS.

Summary of the Protected Safety Information

A. Who may participate?

    Entities eligible for participation include non-FAA core members, 
general members, and other invited participants of the USAST. These 
entities include air navigation service providers, air carriers and 
operators, crewmembers, aerospace industry manufacturers, aviation 
community safety teams, and aerospace industry associations or 
organizations (i.e., labor unions, standards bodies, etc.).

B. What voluntarily provided information will be protected from 
disclosure?

    1. All voluntarily provided information documented in meeting 
agendas, briefings, or minutes before, at, or after any USAST meeting 
or event that covers systemic aviation safety and security issues, 
emerging threats, changing risks, or accident precursors.
    2. All voluntarily provided safety or security issue information 
submitted to and coordinated within the USAST. This includes but is not 
limited to the title of the issue, description, submitter information, 
supporting data provided by any non-government entity, and user 
feedback surrounding the issue.
    3. All information, reports, data, and work products conducted 
through the USAST charted workgroups or aviation community safety teams 
related to the preliminary analysis of voluntarily provided safety or 
security issues. This also includes routine monitoring of voluntarily 
provided aviation safety data for known risks, emerging risks, and 
anomalies.
    4. All information, reports, data, and work products from the 
safety risk assessment processes conducted by the USAST related to 
safety issues voluntarily submitted to the USAST. For a safety issue, 
this includes the identification of hazards, analysis of risk, 
assessment of risk, development of risk controls, safety enhancements, 
and related documentation of the safety risk and risk management 
processes.
    5. All information related to identifying if a USAST participant 
has implemented a safety enhancement recommended by USAST that is 
reported to the FAA.
    6. All information related to the level of safety enhancement 
implementation, and the results of implementation provided to the USAST 
that is reported to the FAA.
    7. Reports, agendas, minutes, and other documents prepared by the 
USAST, aviation community safety team, or workgroup established by the 
USAST that is based on information related to the implementation of 
voluntary safety enhancements.
    8. Any information voluntarily provided related to the 
implementation of safety enhancements and/or the effectiveness of these 
safety enhancements in mitigating underlying risks.

C. How can persons participate?

    Eligible entities that comprise the USAST participate by 
voluntarily providing aviation system-level safety or security issue 
data to the USAST or its respective aviation community safety teams as 
part of the normal operating processes or on an ad-hoc basis.

[[Page 67895]]

D. What is the duration of this protection?

    Information provided to the USAST as part of its ongoing processes 
in support of the identification of systemic safety issues and 
implementation of safety enhancements will be protected indefinitely.

Summary of Findings

    The FAA designates voluntary information received from the USAST 
related to potential system-level safety issues and safety enhancements 
as protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR 193.7 based on the 
following findings:
    1. Summary of why FAA finds that the information will be provided 
voluntarily.
    The core principle of the USAST is voluntary participation. USAST 
participants, who take part in the safety analysis, determine the 
feasibility of safety enhancements, and agree to implement the 
enhancements do so voluntarily. Contributions of safety issue 
information to the USAST are voluntarily provided by the aviation 
industry with the collective understanding that the information will 
not be disclosed and that it will be used to collectively improve 
aviation safety by all USAST's participants. The FAA receives the 
voluntarily provided aviation safety issues from the USAST.
    2. Description of the type of information that may be voluntarily 
provided under the program and why the FAA finds that the information 
is safety or security related.
    USAST participants voluntarily provide safety or security related 
information that identifies possible system-level safety issues in the 
NAS. A system-level safety or security issue is anything that involves 
a potential hazard that affects one or more segments of the aviation 
industry or affects multiple entities within a single segment of the 
industry. As part of the USAST's system-level safety issue lifecycle, 
the USAST relies on identification and voluntary submission of safety 
issues from the industry. USAST participants also voluntarily provide 
information about safety enhancements implementation, the method of 
implementation, the process to evaluate the implementation, and any 
other information, such as best practices related to the implementation 
of safety enhancements. The FAA finds that the information is safety or 
security related because it contributes towards achieving and measuring 
USAST aviation safety goals (e.g., reducing the risk of fatal and non-
fatal accidents.) by using voluntary, proactive, data-driven strategies 
to get results and develop collaborative safety interventions.
    3. Summary of why the FAA finds that the disclosure of the 
information would inhibit persons from voluntarily providing that type 
of information.
    USAST processes fully rely on confidence that voluntarily submitted 
safety and security information from any of the USAST chartered 
stakeholders, attendees, or representatives is protected from 
disclosure. The protection provided by this designation will encourage 
these participants to voluntarily report potential safety issues 
without fear of uncontrolled and involuntary public release of this 
information. Eligible entities part of the USAST will be reluctant to 
share sensitive safety information with the FAA if it might be subject 
to disclosure.
    Additionally, release of the voluntarily provided information to 
the public may be incomplete, unreliable, or sensitive. The release of 
this information may adversely affect the USAST participants and the 
aviation industry, discouraging further voluntary information sharing. 
Protecting system-level safety issue information voluntarily provided 
through the USAST allows the FAA and USAST to appropriately assess the 
information and work with the aviation industry to create safety 
interventions.
    Participation in the USAST is not required by regulation. The U.S. 
aviation industry also has wide discretion on how they leverage the 
voluntary safety enhancements to address the identified safety risk as 
the recommended enhancements are not required by regulation. Any 
disclosure of information listed above would have an adverse effect on 
aviation safety.
    4. Summary of why receiving the information aids in fulfilling the 
FAA's safety and security responsibilities.
    The FAA finds that receipt of safety issue information through the 
USAST aids in fulfilling the FAA's safety responsibilities because it 
provides early identification of potential hazards in the NAS, allowing 
the FAA to proactively address risk in the system. This offers the FAA 
a unique opportunity to work with the aviation industry to avoid 
incidents or accidents. The USAST can provide safety-related 
information that may not be available to the FAA from any other source 
and can help to improve the FAA's ability to modify procedures, 
policies, and regulations to improve aviation safety. The FAA and U.S. 
Department of Transportation (DOT) safety goals, as highlighted in the 
DOT's Strategic Plan FY2026-2030, include ``supporting voluntary 
government and industry information sharing''. With the information 
provided to the FAA through the USAST, the FAA and industry will be 
able to identify systemic aviation safety issues, emerging threats, 
changing risks, and accident precursors effectively and proactively and 
determine whether safety enhancements to address these issues are 
effective. This information supports the FAA's safety goals for 
proactive identification of systemic safety or security issues in the 
NAS.
    5. Summary of why withholding the information from disclosure is 
consistent with FAA safety responsibilities and when withholding the 
information from disclosure would not be consistent with FAA safety 
responsibilities as described in 14 CFR 193.9.
    Withholding such information from disclosure is consistent with the 
FAA's safety responsibilities because without voluntary contributions 
of safety or security issues from the aviation industry and information 
on the implementation of the safety enhancements, the FAA will not be 
able to proactively manage safety in the NAS.
    Unless the FAA can provide assurance that USAST safety information 
will not be disclosed, the FAA may not receive information that would 
otherwise be used to improve aviation safety. Without this information, 
the FAA will be limited in their ability to understand the possible 
system-level safety issues that the aviation industry may be 
experiencing and take proactive steps to address those issues before 
any accidents or incidents occur in the NAS. Withholding the 
information from disclosure encourages entities to voluntarily provide 
it because they know it is protected once the FAA receives it.
    Withholding the information from disclosure would not be consistent 
with FAA safety responsibilities as described in 14 CFR 193.9 when 
reports or other data involve possible criminal activity, substance 
abuse, improper use of controlled substances and/or alcohol, 
intentional falsification, reckless conduct (i.e., an act (or failure 
to act) demonstrating a gross disregard for, or deliberate indifference 
to, safety or a safety standard), intentional conduct (i.e., an act (or 
failure to act) while knowing that such conduct is contrary to a 
regulation or statute, or is otherwise prohibited), or generally 
demonstrate a lack of care, judgment, or responsibility. The protection 
described in this

[[Page 67896]]

proposed designation will not apply to information falling into these 
instances.
    The FAA may disclose de-identified information, as set forth in 
part 193, to explain the need for changes in FAA policies and 
regulations. The FAA may (in consultation with the USAST) release 
information as set forth in part 193 to communicate its work with 
aviation safety communities or other third parties involved with the 
USAST to address system-level safety issues. In either of these 
situations, the FAA may release de-identified, aggregate, and 
summarized information (in consultation with the USAST) derived from 
information reported about the implementation of safety enhancements, 
or safety issue information provided through the USAST.
    The FAA may provide USAST information to other government agencies 
only if each agency meets the requirements in 14 CFR 193.7(e). The FAA 
may provide USAST information to third parties only if the third party 
provides adequate assurance in writing that it has a safety or security 
need for the information, it will protect the information from further 
release, and it will limit access to those with a need to know to carry 
out safety responsibilities.
    6. Summary of how the FAA will distinguish information protected 
under Part 193 from information the FAA receives from other sources.
    Information received by the FAA from the USAST will be clearly 
labeled as follows to be protected under this designation:
    WARNING: This information may be protected from disclosure under 49 
U.S Code (U.S.C.) Section 40123 and 14 Code of Federal Regulations 
(CFR) Part 193.
    In this way, the information protected under this order will be 
easily identified and distinguished from information the FAA receives 
from other sources.

How To Obtain Additional Information

    You will find the FAA's order supporting this notice in the Dynamic 
Regulatory System, accessed via <a href="http://drs.faa.gov">drs.faa.gov</a>.

Final Designation

    The FAA hereby designates the information submitted to the USAST as 
described in this designation to be protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 
14 CFR part 193.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on October 14, 2026.
Matthew Cabak,
Acting Executive Director, Office of Safety Risk Management (ASR-1).
[FR Doc. 2026-21964 Filed 10-27-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P


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