Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

The FAA is updating the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) conducted in concert with the Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) to encourage even greater participation of Part 135 and 91 operators, said Randy McDonald, the ASAP program manager for the FAA’s Air Carrier Training System and Voluntary Safety Programs branch. The program provides a mechanism for voluntarily reporting and mitigating safety issues in a “non-threatening” environment.

 


These changes are designed to make the partnership agreements less restrictive for participants, McDonald told attendees at this week’s Air Charter Safety Foundation meeting. Currently, companies must sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the FAA to participate, but this will change to a less restrictive partnership agreement. He characterized the current MoU as a nine- to 10-page document “filled with dos and don’ts.” This will now be streamlined to a smaller document that focuses on about a handful of aspects of the partnership: roles and responsibilities, how it will function, how decisions will be made, guidance on managing data, and how the partnership could be terminated.

 


In addition, the FAA is committing to remove administration actions—meaning no letters of warning or correction—as long as a report is accepted into the program. He stressed that employees must be “incentivized” to come forward, but disciplinary actions only serve to chill such activity.

 


Other changes ahead include the timeliness of the ASAP reports and activities, he said, noting that should be left up to the company on what works best rather than a predetermined timeline.

 


The changes come as the ACSF-administered programs have now collectively generated 4,000 reports, 90 percent of them from a sole source.

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

FAA Moving To Make ASAP More Flexible

FAA will no longer take administrative actions for reports accepted into the ACSF ASAP program and will sign partnership agreements rather than MoUs.

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News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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