ATSB's central office in Canberra includes an audio laboratory and an FDR laboratory. The principal purpose of the ATSB laboratories is to perform CVR and FDR readouts for the investigation of occurrences, both within Australia and overseas. Australia is one of the only countries in the Asia-Pacific region to have these laboratories and ATSB has offered its services to overseas authorities to assist in the investigation of major accidents. ATSB assists regional neighbours such as New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan and Bangladesh with investigation readouts. The ATSB has read out and analysed the flight recorders from:
- the A300B4-220 accident in Medan, Indonesia on 26 September 1997; and
- the A300B4-600R accident in Taipei on 16 February 1998.
Readouts are also carried out for certification of new recorder-type/aircraft-type combinations.
In addition to its recorder readout capability, ATSB has advanced computer graphics software which allows data obtained from all available sources to be combined to create a graphical reconstruction of the sequence of events in an accident or incident. These sources include FDR, CVR, ground-based radar recorders, eye-witness reports, ATS communications tapes and wreckage analysis. Videos can also be produced from the computer graphics workstation. Computer graphics is a powerful tool for investigators, being an excellent means of explaining accident scenarios to people unfamiliar with aviation, and also providing a valuable educational tool for pilots and other aviation professionals.
Example of a computer graphics animation. 'Chase plane' view of a BAe146 landing...
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