Supporting Statement B

National Transportation Safety Board

Approval of Web-Based Report Form for Aviation Incidents

B. STATISTICAL METHODS

1. Sampling universe, sampling methods, and expected response rate.

As explained below, the NTSB intends to provide a web-based form on which aircraft operators and others who seek to report an aviation incident may provide information about the incident. In order to maximize the number of responses, in general, the NTSB will inform staff at the Federal Aviation Administration as well as aviation industry groups, private pilots, and others of the availability of the online version of the form. The webpage on which the form will appear will include instructions for completing and submitting the form; respondents will have the option of simply selecting “submit” when they have completed the necessary fields on the form. Instantly upon submission, the information from the form will be transmitted to the NTSB, and NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety will receive an email notification of the new submission.

The NTSB expects to receive approximately 50 reports per year of aviation incidents via the web-based form. If the NTSB receives a phone call in which an operator or other person seeks to notify the NTSB of an incident, the NTSB may inform the caller of the availability of the web-based form and request completion of it, rather than transmission of information via telephone. The NTSB will welcome completed web-based notification forms concerning aviation incidents for an indefinite period of time following the occurrence of each incident.

2. Procedures for collection of information.

The form will consist of fields seeking various types of information, all of which will be easily recognizable to respondents involved in aviation. For example, the respondent will select which aviation incident listed at 49 C.F.R. § 830.5 that he or she seeks to report. The respondent will also complete fields for contact information, to enable NTSB investigator(s) to contact the respondent for clarification, if necessary. Upon completion of the fields listed in the form, the respondent will select a “submit” field, which will transmit the information collected in the form to the NTSB. The NTSB will then review the information.

3. Methods to maximize response rates and deal with issues of non-response.

The NTSB will maintain a webpage on which the web-based incident report form will be available for completion, on a voluntary basis. NTSB staff will inform the Federal Aviation Administration, aviation industry groups, and others the agency encounters regularly of the availability of the form. When an aviation incident occurs and the person reporting the incident calls the NTSB Response Operations Center, NTSB staff will inform the caller of the availability of the form.

4. Tests of procedures or methods.

The circumstances of this information collection do not lend themselves to tests of procedures or methods by which the NTSB will obtain information in this collection. The NTSB does not plan to test formally the procedures or methods it will use in obtaining the information, but will compare the feedback it receives on the questionnaires to other sources of data, as described above.

5. Name and telephone number of individual(s) consulted; Name of person who will collect and/or analyze information collected.

The NTSB has not consulted with anyone concerning distribution of the questionnaire. NTSB Office of Aviation Safety staff will work with staff in the NTSB Office of Research and Engineering to oversee collection and analysis of the web-based forms for aviation incidents. Mr. Josh Lindberg, NTSB Aviation Accident Investigator, will assist in collecting and analyzing the information collected on the web-based reporting forms. Mr. Lindberg is available at 490 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. 20494, joshua.lindberg@ntsb.gov; phone (202) 314-6667; facsimile 202-640-2986.