Right Hand Seat

For most countries around the world the aviation authority or a separate accident authority investigates air accidents. Having investigated an accident the authority typically releases a report that details what happened to cause the event and possibly accompanied by recommendations that, if taken up by pilots and operators, may well prevent a like event being repeated.

To fully investigate an accident, and indeed some incidents, can take some time, even years. In the meantime flying operations continue, sometimes oblivious of what may have happened in any said event.

In both the US and Australia and no doubt in some other countries some accident and incident information is released for consumption by the aviation industry on a weekly or monthly schedule.

In the US the NTSB releases a continuously updated monthly listing of notable air accidents. Events such as a pilot error gear-up accident are left to the FAA to handle. The NTSB listing at https://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/month.aspx records each months accidents in date order and if they are preliminary or factual. The prelim is the initial report received by the NTSB while the factual report is the final report on the event. To find out what happened to the aircraft listed by make, model, registration and location one has to open the report. Reports from as far back as January 1962 can be viewed.

Here in Australia the ATSB releases reports on its website, https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/safety-investigation-reports.aspx?mode=Aviation. Completed reports are noted as Final while preliminary reports are listed as Pending. Completed accident reports can take up to a year and sometimes longer to be finalised.

In more recent times the focus of accident investigations has been with commercially operated aircraft while general aviation and recreational aviation aircraft get a lesser priority.

For those wanting a more immediate summary of incidents and accidents the ATSB Weekly Reports give a brief write-up of incidents and accidents that occur on a weekly basis. These can be viewed at https://www.atsb.gov.au/aviation/weekly-summaries.aspx. The weekly incidents and accidents are listed in date order and show the location, aircraft make and model and a brief two to four line summary of the event but no registration. Also included is a column that advises if the event is to be investigated.

For a flight instructor the weekly listing should be of constant interest. It lists many more events than get publicity. In the week of 28 March to 1 April 2011 there were 122 entries. This is a typical week. These comprised an even spread of reports covering airlines, some military (typically bird strikes) helicopters and of course GA aircraft and operations. There were bird strikes, CTA penetrations, runway incursions, ATC breakdowns, pilots doing silly things and even pilots reporting problems that later could not be repeated by engineers etc. There were also several GA aircraft accidents.

From the instructing point of view there are lessons to be gleaned and the message passed on to students and clients. A lesson could be as simple as noting what has happened and avoid repeating the same thing. It should be pointed out that the weekly summaries are only a brief snapshot at what took place but in most cases the material presented will often give the reader enough information to form an opinion about what took place, and how to avoid a repeat.

If there are any comments to be made about the ATSB weeklies it is that they are sometimes many weeks old when released, as much as four to eight weeks.

One could put this down to several reasons, a possible staffing and funding issue or simply not wanting to feed the media with material to include in an incident or accident write-up. Maybe it is both! Not all the incidents or accidents will feature in the released accident reports. ATSB has a financial cap on its operations and so has to be selective in its investigations. Accidents involving the paying public get top priority.

The ATSB weekly summaries. A good read for instructors and pilots wanting to obtain more information about the incidents and accidents that happen across the country. Learn and avoid.

Contact Dave by email at [email protected]