Definition
The third step in the FAA risk management process, in which an identified hazard and its associated risk are reduced to an acceptable level through specific actions taken before or during a flight. Mitigation may involve eliminating the hazard, avoiding it, transferring it, accepting it at a reduced level, or applying controls that lower the likelihood or severity of an undesired outcome.
Plain English
Once you have spotted a hazard and decided how serious it is, this step is about doing something to make the risk smaller or safer to live with. You change the plan, add a safety margin, get help, or call it off.
Context Anchor
Seen in aeronautical decision-making, flight planning, instructional scenarios, and preflight discussions about whether a flight or lesson should continue as planned.
Derivation
Mitigate comes from the Latin mitigare, meaning to soften or make mild. In risk management it carries that same sense — you are not always removing the hazard, but softening its effect to a level you can safely accept.
Why Pilots Care
Mitigating risk lowers the chance of an accident and supports safer, more confident go/no-go decisions.
Intuition Check
Do not read “mitigate” as “eliminate.” In this context, it means reduce the risk to a level that is reasonable and acceptable for the situation.
Example Sentence 1
After identifying thunderstorms along the route, the pilot chose to mitigate the risk by departing two hours earlier, before the storms developed.
Example Sentence 2
Before takeoff the pilot mitigated the risk of low fuel by adding an extra thirty-minute reserve.