Japan Airlines is set to introduce Line Operation Safety Audit (LOSA), a program for the
management of human error in flight operations.Through introducing the system, JAL aims to further decrease
human error and improve operational quality.
LOSA, a program recommended by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO), the world body responsible for civil aviation, was developed in 1990 by the
University of Texas with the support of the FAA. LOSA uses regular monitoring of flight line operations to
discover trends in handling human errors and factors that trigger human errors of each airline by analyzing and
evaluating results of the monitoring.
For three months from April 2007, in the largest LOSA program ever performed on one airline, monitoring
personnel from TLC, a LOSA operating company, and JAL flight crew who have received training on LOSA, will
travel on 435 domestic and international flights, and observe flight crew performance and actual flight conditions
from the human factor viewpoint. TLC will scientifically analyze the results of these observations, and JAL will
implement any necessary corrective actions based on the results of the analyses. The effects of corrective actions
will be verified in future through continually monitoring.
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