The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) has released its 2026 Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) Mid-Year Review, providing an analysis of voluntary safety reports submitted by ACSF members and identifying key trends affecting business and private aviation operations.
Between January and June 2026, ACSF members submitted 760 ASAP reports representing 432 events. Of those reports, 703 were sole-source reports and 57 were non-sole-source reports, which primarily included declared emergencies, Brasher warnings and pilot deviations.
The review shows that altitude deviations, traffic proximity events and coordination/communication issues account for 41% of all reports, reinforcing the importance of continued attention to human factors, communication and airspace awareness.
Altitude deviations remain the most frequently reported event category at 16%, followed by traffic proximity events at 14% and coordination/communication issues at 11%. Traffic proximity reports were concentrated primarily in the New York metropolitan area, Van Nuys and South Florida airspace.
“One of the greatest strengths of ASAP is that it gives us visibility into what is happening during everyday operations, including events and circumstances that might otherwise never become part of a broader safety conversation,” said Debi Carpenter, President of the Air Charter Safety Foundation. “When members voluntarily report these events, we can begin identifying patterns, sharing lessons learned and helping operators focus their safety resources where they can have the greatest impact.”
Consistent Trends Provide Important Safety Intelligence
When ACSF compared 2026 data with reporting from 2024 and 2025, a notable pattern emerged. Altitude deviations and traffic proximity events have remained the two largest categories in each of the three years, consistently accounting for approximately 31% to 33% of reports.
At the same time, several areas show encouraging movement. Traffic proximity events are trending downward even as overall air traffic has increased, while coordination and communication issues, airframe mechanical issues and diversions have shown multi-year improvement.
The report also found that non-sole-source events, including Brasher warnings, pilot deviations and declared emergencies, have declined significantly since the first quarter of 2025.
These trends demonstrate the value of examining voluntary safety data over time rather than focusing on individual events.
Turning Voluntary Reporting Into Proactive Safety Action
ASAP is designed to provide a voluntary, non-punitive reporting environment that encourages aviation employees to share safety information. By capturing near misses, procedural deviations and other events that may fall below the threshold of a formal investigation, ASAP can provide safety departments with earlier visibility into emerging or recurring risks.
The 2026 Mid-Year Review notes that the data is particularly useful for identifying where operational risk is concentrated and where additional attention may be warranted.
“Safety data becomes most valuable when organizations use it to drive action,” Carpenter added. “The goal is not simply to collect reports. It is to learn from them, identify trends and use those insights to strengthen training, procedures, risk management and ultimately the safety of the entire operation.”
A Broader Look at the 2026 Safety Environment
In addition to ASAP reporting trends, ACSF’s Mid-Year Review examines several issues shaping the business aviation safety environment in 2026, including the continued implementation of expanded Safety Management System requirements under 14 CFR Part 5, GPS/GNSS interference, runway and ground safety, workforce pressures and ongoing regulatory and legislative developments.
Together, these issues reinforce the importance of proactive safety management and the value of combining voluntary reporting with an effective Safety Management System.
The ACSF ASAP program enables participating operators to identify potential safety concerns, understand trends and use shared information to support data-driven safety improvements. Through confidential voluntary reporting and Event Review Committee collaboration, ASAP helps turn individual experiences into lessons that can benefit participating organizations and the broader aviation community.
Read the complete 2026 ACSF ASAP Mid-Year Review