Which form is this? DA Form 2397-4, official title TECHNICAL REPORT OF US ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT PART V - SUMMARY OF WITNESS INTERVIEW, used to technical report of u.s. army aircraft accident part v - summary of witness interview. That is the whole answer in one sentence. What follows explains the version, the file and the entries.
Am I looking at the right edition? The copy here carries the date February 2009 and the status not stated. Forms in the DA series are identified by edition date rather than by revision number, so that date is what you compare against.
Who is responsible for this document? OCSA maintains it, and PAM 385-40 prescribes when it is used and where it goes. Completion falls to the person the entries describe or to the administrative staff holding the file. As for effort: 2 page(s), roughly 95 fields.
What the form asks for
- ADDRESS
- AGE
- Aircraft_SN
- Case_Date
- Case_Time
- ContentArea1
- Decline
- EXPERNC
- GRADE
- INTERVWR
- INTRVIEW
- Interviewer_Date
- LOCATE
- Line1
- Line2
- Line3
- NO_A
- Name_Witness
- OCCUP
- Page1
- Page2
- R26
- R39
- R41
Download the form
Which formats can I download? These: PDF, XFDL. All of them carry the same published page — the difference is not what the form says but how you get words onto it.
Fillable or printable — which do I want? Fillable, if there is a keyboard involved: the boxes are interactive objects that store text. Printable, if there is a pen involved: the boxes are just lines on paper. Nothing else distinguishes them.
Which application should I use? Reading takes nothing beyond a browser. Filling takes a proper pdf reader, since browser viewers vary in whether they retain what you type — verify with a single field and a save before you fill the whole form. What is xfdl? The IBM Lotus Forms format used inside Army systems. It requires the Lotus Forms Viewer; nothing else opens it.
Is it free? Yes, entirely. No registration stands between you and the file, and what arrives is exactly what the publisher released.
Where do you start? At the top of the page, with the identifying entries: name as your official records spell it, identification number, unit or organisation, date of preparation. Why first? Because those entries are what the form is filed and searched under later, and a record indexed on a misspelled name is a record nobody retrieves.
What is the fastest way to fill the body? Tab from field to field. The order was set at build time and normally matches how the page reads, which is why tabbing catches boxes that clicking past would leave empty. And the boxes and buttons? Those take a click. Where only one option in a set can apply, choosing one deselects the other.
Can a field hold a long answer? Not if it is sized for one line — there is no wrap, and the excess prints missing while remaining visible as you type. So where does the extra text belong? In the remarks area or a continuation sheet. Should you skip fields that are irrelevant to your case? No. Mark them accordingly, because an empty field reads as an oversight rather than an answer.
When do you sign? Last, after every other entry is settled. Until the signature is applied the document is a draft, however complete it looks. What if more than one signature is required? Reviewing official, approving authority and witness sign in the order the blocks print, and each dates the form on the day of signing rather than the day it was prepared. What goes wrong most often? Mandatory fields left empty, transposed digits in identification numbers, dates with day and month reversed, and old entries surviving in a working copy that was reused instead of a fresh blank form.
Why does the form carry a Privacy Act statement? Because personal information is being collected, and the statement declares the authority, the purpose, who else routinely sees the data, and whether answering is required or optional. Is it worth reading? Read it before you fill the fields it governs, not after. Does it change how you keep the file? It should — a filled copy is a personal record and gets the handling such records receive.
What happens after signing? The form is routed as the prescribing directive requires: to a named office, through the unit administrative channel, or into the personal file. Do you get the original back? No, so make a copy first. Who sets the retention period? The applicable records schedule, not the office holding the document.
Which other forms travel with this one? Those found by series and number: DA series documents sharing a proponent or a governing directive are frequently needed in combination, and a form referenced on the face of another generally accompanies it. Do you assemble them before or after sending? Before. Continuation sheets, cover sheets and transmittals are part of the same package.
What causes a form to be superseded? A revision issued by the proponent, after which the previous edition date no longer matches the one in force. How do you check a copy you saved? Read the edition date on the page and hold it against the current edition. Must earlier submissions be redone? They must not — a completed record executed on a prior edition is unaffected.
What exactly is this site? A place to download reproductions of published Department of the Army documents. Is it part of the Department of the Army? No — it is independent, issues no forms of its own, and has no authority over any of them. Can it tell you whether your completed form will be accepted? It cannot, and nothing written here is legal advice. Who answers the real questions? OCSA or the administrative office servicing your unit, on any question of entry, requirement or eligibility.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2397-4?
- TECHNICAL REPORT OF US ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT PART V - SUMMARY OF WITNESS INTERVIEW
- Which edition is current?
- February 2009
- Who is responsible for this form?
- OCSA
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL