Expert Opinion
AIN Blog: The Tragic Lameness of the SDR Database
The FAA and aviation industry are not making effective use of the Service Difficulty Reporting database.
The FAA used to publish a summary of interesting Service Difficulty Reporting system reports, but that was canceled and now the only way to view the reports is to query the database.
The FAA used to publish a summary of interesting Service Difficulty Reporting system reports, but that was canceled and now the only way to view the reports is to query the database.

In a story published on September 1, AIN senior editor Kerry Lynch outlines a fascinating tale of a safety problem that doesn’t seem to be attracting much attention from the FAA, the aircraft manufacturer or the vendor of the product in question. 

When I first read this article, I wondered why no one seemed to be interested in the problem, so I decided to search the FAA’s Service Difficulty Reporting (SDR) database to see whether there were any reports about this particular product. One of the ways the FAA gets information to determine whether an airworthiness directive is needed is from the SDR. I’ve never been able to find this out, but have often wondered whether manufacturers rely on their own data to come up with service bulletins or whether they look at the SDR database too. 

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Matt Thurber
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