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DA Form 2397-1 belongs to the DA series of Department of the Army publications. Its official title is TECHNICAL REPORT OF US ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT PART II - SUMMARY, and its stated purpose is technical report of us army aircraft accident part ii - summary. Edition in force: February 2009. Publication status: not stated. Length is 1 page(s), with roughly 200 fields available for entry.
Responsibility for content and revision lies with OCSA. The prescribing directive is PAM 385-40, which sets both the trigger for use and the disposition of the completed document. Entry is made by the named party or by the records clerk holding the file, with review and signature applied in the prescribed order.
Available formats: PDF, XFDL. Each is a rendering of the same official layout; the content is identical across them and only the means of completion differs. The pdf is the reference copy. Fillable pdf carries interactive form fields; a printable pdf is the same page image without them, intended for pen entry after printing.
A pdf opens in any current browser or in a dedicated reader. Fillable behaviour is more reliable in a full reader than in a browser viewer, where some field types render but do not save. An xfdl file is also published. This is the IBM Lotus Forms format used within Army systems; it requires the Lotus Forms Viewer and will not open in a pdf reader or a word processor.
Every format is available at no charge and without sign-up. Files are distributed exactly as published, with no changes to the page.
What the form asks for
- ACFT_MTDS
- AGL_A
- AGL_B
- AGL_C
- AIRSPEED_A
- AIRSPEED_B
- AIRSPEED_C
- AVN_Safety_Officer_Signature
- CITY
- CLASS_A
- CLASS_B
- CLASS_C
- COUNTRY
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DAWN
- DAY
- DEGREES
- DISABLE_A
- DISABLE_A_1
- DISABLE_B
- DISABLE_B_1
- DISABLE_C
- DISABLE_D
Completion follows the printed sequence of blocks from the top of the page downward. The heading area takes the identifying particulars — name, identification number, organisation, date of preparation. Retrieval of the record from a file depends on these entries, and they are therefore filled first.
Fillable fields accept typing directly. Tab advances from one field to the next in the order the form was built, which is normally the reading order of the page. Check boxes and option buttons are clicked; where a set of options is exclusive, selecting one clears the rest. Fields sized for a single line will not wrap, and text exceeding the width is truncated in print even where it remains visible on screen. Long entries belong in the remarks area or on a continuation, not compressed into a narrow field.
Signature comes at the end, applied in ink or by an accepted electronic method. Until it is applied the document is a draft. Additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — are taken in printed block order, each dated when signed rather than when the form was drafted. The commonest error is a mandatory field left blank; where nothing applies, the entry is marked accordingly instead of being skipped. Transposed identification digits, day and month reversed in dates, and carried-over data from a reused working copy account for most of the remainder.
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Once completed, the form goes where the governing authority directs: to the designated office, along the unit administrative channel, or into the personal file. The preparer retains a copy. The length of retention and the manner of filing are set by the records schedule for the series, not by local arrangement.
Associated documents are located through the series and number scheme. Forms in the DA series with the same proponent or the same prescribing directive tend to be used as a set, and any form named on the face of another normally accompanies it. Continuations, cover sheets, and transmittals fall into this category and are gathered before the package is sent.
An edition stands until the proponent issues a revision. The printed edition date identifies the version, and a copy held locally is checked against the edition now in force before reuse. Prior executions under a superseded edition are not reopened for that reason.
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Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2397-1?
- TECHNICAL REPORT OF US ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT PART II - SUMMARY
- Which edition is current?
- February 2009
- Who is responsible for this form?
- OCSA
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL