We often get asked how we decide whether to investigate a particular accident or incident that’s reported to us. 

To help answer this question, it’s important to provide a bit of context. 

The ATSB receives more than 15,000 safety occurrence reports from the aviation, maritime and rail transport industries each year. Of these reports, around 8,000 are assessed as accidents or incidents—and the vast majority are reports of minor incidents.  

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As humans, we’re all prone to making simple mistakes—be it a typo in a document or pressing a wrong digit when dialling a phone number.

While most of these mistakes are harmless in everyday life, they are potentially dangerous if done by pilots flying aircraft. 

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We recently released a preliminary investigation report into the fatal accident of a Robinson R44 helicopter at Bulli Tops in NSW. The R44 caught fire after striking a tree and hitting the ground. Tragically, the pilot and three passengers died in the accident.

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When a Fokker 100 jet crashed in Myanmar late last year, tragically killing two and injuring more than 30 people, Myanmar authorities were keen to discover what happened to prevent a similar accident from happening again. To assist with technical aspects of their investigation, Myanmar investigators asked the ATSB to lend a hand.

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Last week, we released an investigation report into a fatal accident involving a seaman who was knocked off a ladder by a wave while working over the side of a container ship. 

The seaman had the appropriate safety kit, including harness and rope, and the crew had successfully performed this type of task more than 30 times over the previous two months.

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