In the 2010-2011 financial year, the Australian Transport Safety
Bureau (ATSB) completed 51 aviation, 11 marine, and 8 rail
investigations where safety factors (events or conditions affecting
safety risk) were identified using the ATSB analysis framework.
From these investigations, 121 safety issues (factors that have a
potential to adversely affect the safety of future operations) were
identified and 137 safety actions were undertaken by various
parties to address these safety issues. This report documents and
analyses these safety issues and safety actions and explores the
risk levels (critical, significant or minor) assigned to them to
provide an understanding of where the greatest risks to each
transport mode appear to lie. The results will be useful for
government decision makers, regulators and the aviation, rail and
marine industries to understand if and where attention to risk
needs to be applied.
Inadequate procedures were a common safety issue found by ATSB
investigations for all transport modes. Specifically for rail, the
design and operation of procedures were common issues. Risk
controls to manage technical failures were also common in aviation.
Marine investigations found that equipment problems and safety
management systems were also of significant concern.
Once safety issues are identified in an investigation, they need
to be addressed. Across the three transport modes, 71 per cent of
safety issues of significant risk were addressed (that is, had
their risk reduced to an acceptable level), while 15 per cent were
only partially addressed. Only one safety issue (from marine)
continues to be not addressed without any expected future safety
action.
Proactive industry safety action during an investigation was the
most common way that safety issues were addressed across the
aviation and marine modes, while for rail the most common method of
addressing safety issues was for the ATSB to issue formal Safety
Advisory Notices. Only one safety issue, in aviation, was assessed
to pose a critical risk to safety and was addressed by technical
inspections, repairs or modifications and changes to mandatory
requirements.
The most common avenue to address safety issues that posed a
significant risk to aviation safety was to communicate with and/or
educate those involved. For marine, changing or reviewing policy or
conducting organisational surveillance were the most common ways to
address significant safety issues. In rail, the most common ways to
address significant safety issues involved technical actions
and policy changes .