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Vol. 23, No. 1/Fall 2001

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Book Review: "Covering Aviation Safety"
By Carolyn Edds

The jacket of the book Covering Aviation SafetyCovering Aviation Safety: An Investigator's Guide
By: Marie Tessier
Published: 2001
Price: $15 for IRE Members, $25 for Nonmembers
Available from: Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc.

While the first book in the Investigative Reports & Editors (IRE) Beat Book Series, "Covering Aviation Safety: An Investigator’s Guide," was written for reporters on the aviation beat, news librarians can use it as a guide for creating an intranet section containing aviation safety resources.

The author, Marie Tessier, includes an outline for a crash plan, suggests sources and information to gather and describes the various databases that are helpful in aviation reporting. She discusses how to cover a plane crash, both the breaking news stories and the follow up stories. She includes stories as examples of how aviation beat reporters have used information obtained from some of these sources.

One chapter is about developing a newsroom crash plan ahead of time in case there is a plane crash in your community. It includes a 12-step outline of information to gather, such as documents from local agencies that might be involved after a plane crash; contact information for local officials; graphics, photos and drawings; and specific information from the airport such as approach and departure patterns.

Another chapter discusses obtaining contact information from federal agencies and national organizations and what some of their biases might be. This chapter has a list of potential sources compiled from the suggestions of several broadcast and print reporters who cover aviation. Perhaps one page of your intranet aviation section could be a list of issues related to aviation safety, with links to background information on those issues.

The longest chapter describes aviation-related records, how to get them and how to understand them. This chapter contains screen captures of the databases, providing the reader with a better understanding of some of the information included. For each type of record there is a description of what information can be obtained from that record and examples of how reporters have used them in the past. At the end of each description there is a box describing how the database can be ordered from the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) or requested under the Freedom of Information Act from the FAA or NASA. The boxes include contact numbers, addresses and web sites. Some of the databases described include FAA Aircraft Registrations, FAA Airmen’s Registry, FAA Accidents and Incidents, FAA Service Difficulty Reports and the NASA Anonymous Safety Reporting System.

This information can serve as a guide to newsrooms about what data to obtain before a plane crash occurs in the area and what data to obtain to help with follow-up stories. Searchable interfaces to the data could be developed on your intranet, which would be an extremely useful tool to the newsroom in the event of a plane crash. The chapter also includes some cautions about data from private database sources on the Internet, a good reminder about the accuracy or inaccuracy of information on the Web.

The book also has comments from aviation reporters, some stories they have written after using some of these records and sources and suggestions about covering a plane crash. One suggestion is to develop a question tree of questions to ask the FAA and NTSB after a plane crash. Other ideas are a list of steps to take on deadline by reporters and data analysts and a list of suggested questions for follow-up stories. One of the final lists in the book is of FAA regional contact numbers, arranged alphabetically by state.

IRE has a companion web site for this book. This web site includes links to tipsheets, stories and datasets available from IRE, aviation web sites, and links to a compilation of stories that used FAA or other federal government data as a resource for follow-up stories about the terrorist attacks. Most of the stories, tipsheets and aviation web sites on this companion page are also listed in the back of the book. This companion web site is available at www.ire.org/store/books/aviation/

News librarians from different-sized organizations will find this book a good tool for developing information about covering aviation safety.


Carolyn Edds is the Resource Center Director for Investigative Reporters and Editors. You can contact her at carolyn@ire.org.