How to Fill Out and Submit AF Form 457: USAF Hazard Report

To fill out an AF Form 457, now formally the DAF Form 457, write down when and where you observed the hazard, describe in plain factual terms what is unsafe and why, suggest a fix if you have one, and either include your contact information or check the anonymous option before sending it to your supervisor, the installation safety office, or through the Air Force Safety Automated System. The form is the Department of the Air Force’s standard hazard report, and DAFI 91-202 requires commanders to make it available to every military member, civilian employee, and contractor on the installation.¹

When the Form Is the Right Tool

Use a DAF Form 457 for any event involving hazards, errors, unsafe procedures, practices, or conditions that affect flight, occupational, weapons, systems, or space safety. The scope is deliberately broad, and there is no requirement that the hazard threaten a particular mishap class before it qualifies.¹ Deteriorating infrastructure, malfunctioning equipment, missing safety guards, chemical storage violations, and procedural shortcuts all qualify.

The form exists for hazards you cannot fix on the spot. A loose floor tile you can tape off and route through a work order does not necessarily need a formal report. A cracked structural weld, a repeatedly bypassed lockout procedure, or a verbal complaint that went nowhere does. Filing on paper (or in AFSAS) creates the record that starts the mandated response clock.

If Someone Could Be Hurt Right Now, Don’t Start with Paperwork

If the hazard could kill or seriously injure someone immediately, DAFI 91-202 directs you to notify the commander and the supervisor in charge first. That commander or supervisor is then required to eliminate or control the hazard, or halt operations and withdraw exposed personnel, until the risk is mitigated or formally accepted at the appropriate level.¹ File the 457 after the immediate threat is under control so the incident gets documented and investigated.

Where to Get the Form

You have three options. Download the fillable PDF from the Air Force e-Publishing site at e-publishing.af.mil, pick up a hard copy from your unit safety office, or file digitally through the Hazard Management module in the Air Force Safety Automated System at afsas.safety.af.mil if you have CAC access.² Filing through AFSAS puts the report directly into investigators’ hands.

What Each Block Asks For

The form itself is short. Getting each block right prevents delays and follow-up questions later.

Date and time observed. Note when you first noticed the hazard. Investigators use this to line up weather, shift changes, lighting, and other conditions that may have contributed.

Location. Be specific. Building number, room, flight line coordinates, shop designation, or equipment identifier. “Hangar 4, Bay 2, overhead crane rail” is far more useful than “the flight line.”

Description of the hazard. This is the most important block on the form. Describe what you observed in concrete, factual terms: what is broken, missing, or being done wrong, and why it poses a risk. Stay with what you saw. Skip speculation about who caused it and skip emotional characterizations. If you already reported this verbally to a supervisor, facility manager, or Unit Safety Representative and nothing happened, say so in the narrative. A pattern of unresolved verbal complaints justifies higher-level intervention.

Suggested corrective action. You do not have to be an engineer. If your hands-on experience gives you a workable idea, write it in. Suggestions from the person closest to the hazard often shape the final fix.

Reporter information. You can include your name and contact details or file anonymously. Providing contact information lets the investigator ask follow-up questions and keeps you in the feedback loop. Anonymous reports are fully accepted; the tradeoff is that you will not get direct updates.¹

Attach photos, diagrams, or sketches whenever you can. A picture of a cracked weld or a missing guardrail communicates the problem faster than any written description, especially when the investigator works out of a different part of the installation.

How to Submit It

DAFI 91-202 gives you three destinations: your responsible supervisor, the local safety office, or anonymous submission through either channel. Acceptable methods include hand-delivery of the paper form, encrypted email, telephone, in-person reporting, or entry through the AFSAS portal.¹ If the hazard is not eliminated immediately, the report must reach the installation safety office no matter which path you use.

Contractors follow a different route. A contractor who observes a hazard reports it to the Contracting Officer Representative. Unless the situation presents imminent danger, contractors should not report violations directly to other contractor personnel; the path is through the COR or the installation safety office.¹

What Happens After You File

Once the safety office receives the report, an investigator is assigned and the response clock starts. For occupational safety hazards, DAFI 91-202 sets mandatory windows at the (T-0) tier, meaning no waiver authority exists below the level specified:

Critical or imminent danger: investigation begins within one duty day.
Potentially serious situations: within three workdays.
Lesser conditions: within ten workdays.¹

Flight, weapons, systems, and space safety hazards follow the applicable 91-series discipline-specific guidance, which may set different windows.

Qualified safety or fire personnel assign a Risk Assessment Code based on how likely a mishap is and how severe it would be. You do not assign the RAC; the investigator does. The RAC then drives funding priority through the installation’s master hazard abatement plan, so a higher-severity hazard competes ahead of a lower one regardless of which was reported first.¹

If you gave your name, the investigator must notify you in writing about corrective actions taken or planned, within ten workdays after the report is closed. When the report is anonymous, that notification goes to the supervisor or manager of the area instead.¹ If the response does not actually address the danger, or you believe the risk was underestimated, DAFI 91-202 provides an explicit path to resubmit. You are not stuck with the initial answer.

Protection from Retaliation

Filing a hazard report is protected. For service members, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act at 10 U.S.C. § 1034 prohibits anyone from taking or threatening unfavorable personnel actions, including negative performance reports, reassignment, or denial of promotion, as reprisal for a protected communication. Reporting a safety hazard through official channels falls within the protected categories.³ DAFI 91-202 separately prohibits coercion, discrimination, or reprisal against anyone who reports a hazard.¹

Department of the Air Force civilian employees are covered under 29 CFR Part 1960, which requires federal agencies to maintain a hazard reporting system and protects employees who use it. The DAF Form 457 satisfies that requirement.¹ Civilians may also report unsafe conditions directly to the Secretary of Labor, though the Secretary of Labor encourages using internal DAF procedures first.⁴ The same anti-retaliation protections apply.

Anonymity is available to both military and civilian personnel and is assured if requested.¹ The tradeoff is practical: an anonymous reporter cannot be contacted for the clarifying details that often strengthen the case for a fix, and updates on the investigation go to the area supervisor instead of to you.

1
Department of the Air Force. DAFI 91-202 – Department of the Air Force Mishap Prevention Program
2
Air Force Safety Center. Today’s Air Force Safety Automated System
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1034 – Protected Communications; Prohibition of Retaliatory Personnel Actions
4
Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Occupational Safety and Health Program