What does this form do? DA Form 2397-7 is titled TECHNICAL REPORT OF U.S. ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT PART VIII - MAINTENANCE AND MATERIEL DATA, and its job is to technical report of u.s. army aircraft accident part viii - maintenance and material data. Anyone sent to find "the 2397-7" is being sent here. Everything below expands on that one function.
Is this the current version? The edition offered here is dated February 2009, published with the status not stated. That date is the version number of a military form; there is no other.
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: 1 page(s), roughly 200 fields.
What the form asks for
- ACFT_NO
- ATTITUDE
- CAUSE_MAL
- CORRECT
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DATE_A
- DATE_SPEC
- DATE_SPEC_1
- DESIGN_D
- DESIGN_S
- DESIGN_U
- FCTNL_GP
- FIG_NO
- FIG_NO_1
- FLUID
- HISTORY_A
- HISTORY_B
- HISTORY_C
- HISTORY_D
- HISTORY_E
- HRS_LST
- HRS_LST_1
- HRS_NEW
Download the form
What file types are offered? PDF, XFDL. The page image is the same in every one of them; only the way you complete it changes from format to format.
What is the difference between fillable and printable? A fillable pdf has live fields that accept typing and can be saved with your entries in place. A printable pdf is the same blank page with no live fields, meant to come out of a printer and be completed with a pen. Both print identically once filled.
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.
Do I have to sign up? No. Every format is free, no account is involved, and the file is distributed unmodified.
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.
How should you work through the entry fields? With the tab key. It follows the order the form was constructed in, which is usually the order the page reads, so nothing gets passed over. Do check boxes work the same way? They are clicked rather than tabbed into. In an exclusive group, a second click elsewhere clears your first choice, as intended.
Why does my text vanish when I print? Because one-line fields have no wrap, and anything past the field width is truncated on paper even though the screen shows all of it. Where should the overflow go? Into remarks, or onto a continuation. What about entries that do not apply? Enter the mark meaning "none". Blank space is ambiguous; a reviewer cannot tell an omission from a considered nil.
Where does the signature belong in the sequence? At the very end, by hand or by an accepted electronic means. An unsigned form is a draft regardless of how full it is. Are countersignatures needed? Where the form provides for them — reviewing official, approving authority, witness — taken in printed order and dated on the day applied. What should you check before releasing it? Empty mandatory fields, digit transposition in identification numbers, day-month inversion in dates, and residue from an old copy used in place of a blank one.
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.
How do you find related forms? By series and number. Documents in the DA series sharing a proponent or a prescribing directive are commonly used together, and a form cited on the face of another usually goes forward with it. When should you gather them? Before submission — continuation sheets, cover sheets and transmittal documents belong in the package from the start.
When is an edition replaced? When the proponent revises the form and publishes a new edition date. What should you do with a copy kept on your own machine? Check its date against the edition in force before reusing it. Does the change reach backwards? It does not; work already completed on an earlier edition remains valid as filed.
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 2397-7?
- TECHNICAL REPORT OF U.S. ARMY AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT PART VIII - MAINTENANCE AND MATERIEL DATA
- Which edition is current?
- February 2009
- Who is responsible for this form?
- OCSA
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL