Download the form
DA Form 2397-8 exists to technical report of u.s. army aircraft accident, part ix - personal data — that is the short version. Title of record: TECHNICAL REPORT OF US ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT, PART IX - PERSONAL DATA. The page covers the download, the entries and the disposition, nothing else. Current here: edition February 2009, status not stated, 1 page(s), near 200 fields.
OCSA is the proponent, PAM 385-40 the prescribing authority. Read the directive only if something about your situation departs from the standard case. Otherwise the form is filled by the individual it describes, or by the records clerk keeping the file, and reviewed through the printed signature blocks.
PDF, XFDL are available and the decision takes one second. Type your entries: fillable pdf. Write them: printable pdf. The published layout is common to both, so the format governs your method and nothing more.
Use a full pdf reader, not the browser viewer. Browser viewers display fields they cannot always save, and the loss shows up only when you reopen the file — type one entry, save, reopen, verify, then fill the rest. The xfdl file is IBM Lotus Forms, used inside Army systems, and opens in the Lotus Forms Viewer alone — no pdf reader, no word processor.
No charge, no account, no email address. The file is the published document, distributed unaltered.
What the form asks for
- ACDT_HRS
- ACDT_HRS_1
- ACFT_MTDS
- ACFT_MTDS_1
- ACFT_MTDS_2
- ACFT_NO
- ANL_PHY_A
- ANL_PHY_B
- ANL_PHY_C
- APART
- ATM_ASC
- ATM_INV
- AUTH_A
- AUTH_B
- AUTH_C
- AUTO_A
- AUTO_B
- AUTO_C
- AUTO_DAT
- BACK_A
- BACK_A_1
- BACK_A_2
- BACK_A_3
- BACK_A_4
The heading entries carry more weight than the body. Name spelled as in official records, identification number, organisation, date prepared. Retrieval runs on those values, so a transposed digit or a casual spelling costs someone a file search. Fill them before anything else.
Tabbing beats clicking for coverage. The order was set at build time and tracks the page layout, so following it leaves no gaps. Boxes and buttons are clicked; where options are exclusive, one selection cancels another by design. Watch field width on long entries: one-line fields have no wrap, and what runs past the edge disappears in print though the screen still shows it. Move that text to remarks or a continuation. Never leave an inapplicable field empty — enter the nil mark, because a reviewer cannot distinguish a skipped question from a considered answer.
Signature comes after every other entry — ink or an approved electronic means, and without it the document is a draft. Where reviewing, approving or witnessing signatures are called for, take them in printed block order, each dated on the day applied. Before release, one pass from the top. The defects worth hunting are always the same four: mandatory fields left empty, identification digits transposed, dates with day and month reversed, and stale data surviving in a copy reused in place of a blank form.
Read the Privacy Act statement at the point it appears. Authority, purpose, routine uses, mandatory or voluntary — four facts, and they govern what you are about to enter. A completed copy holds personal data and takes the handling rules that attach to it.
The prescribing directive names the destination; office custom does not. Depending on the case that means a specific office, the unit administrative channel, or the personal record. Keep a copy first, because the original does not come back. Retention runs on the applicable records schedule.
Companion documents come from the same series and number scheme. Within the DA series, a shared proponent or a shared directive usually means shared use, and a form cited on the face of another accompanies it. Gather the whole package first — continuation sheets, cover sheets, transmittals.
Check the edition date before reusing a saved copy. Revisions come from the proponent without notice to you, and the printed date is the only version marker on the page. Already-submitted records under a superseded edition stand as filed; the change does not run backwards.
The files are copies of published Department of the Army forms. This site has no official connection, no authority to issue anything, and no basis for saying whether an office will accept a given submission. None of the text is legal advice. Real questions — entry, requirement, eligibility — belong with OCSA or the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2397-8?
- TECHNICAL REPORT OF US ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT, PART IX - PERSONAL DATA
- Which edition is current?
- February 2009
- Who is responsible for this form?
- OCSA
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL