Exploring the impact of FAA recommended procedures and aviation industry guidelines on business aviation safety

The specific problem explored in this study was that business aviation accident rates are at an unacceptable level suggesting that more regulatory and industry safety improvements are warranted to reduce the accident rate. This multiple-case study qualitative design consisted of exploring existing flight departments through interviews and direct observations of operations, administrative personnel, and flight crew in a natural environment while they completed their duties. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore how Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulatory and existing industry guidelines affect the business aviation industry with the potential to improve safety. There were 10 participants, selected through convenience sampling for the interviews, who were business aviation experts from companies intimately familiar with industry policies and procedures available. The information obtained from the interviews and direct observations was tabulated, and used to develop16 broad themes to assess the initial threads in the data. The field notes taken from the interviews and direct observations were further distilled into nine sub-themes via open coding, selective coding, and a cross-case synthesis was applied with each company assessed as an individual case resulting in the core theme: the FAA is lagging behind the industry and aviation industry regulations are not adequate to make business aviation safer. Some of the recommendations included shortening the FAA policy approval process, mandating and standardizing safety management systems, and increased resources to enforce FAA regulations.