Originally Posted by
FlyerJosh
True, however at airlines that have ASAP in place aircrews have better protections than that offered by ASRS. ASRS was created with all of aviation in mind, however over the years it has failed to grow with the safety concepts that airlines and national unions have developed for professional flight crews. ASAP is a much more appropriate program for part 121 operations, and it offers much more in the way of protections, provided that it is set up correctly and has union representation on the ASAP committee.
The two programs supplement each other. ASAP is still an INTERNAL safety program for the most part, while ASRS is external. The idea behind ASRS was not to protect the careers of airline pilots, but to protect the lives of people by disiminating safety information and identifying safety problems. The problem with the TWA crash that I mentioned is that just a little prior to this accident the safety problem was identified by another airline but not passed on to other airlines. ASRS is designed to help prevent this from happening again. Some how the idea has arisen that ASRS is your "get out of jail free card". It's your "save someones life" card.