In‑flight opening of the tip-up canopy in a number of Van’s Aircraft Inc. models has resulted in varying consequences, including a significant pitch down tendency, increasing the risk of a loss of control.
Skandi Pacific’s managers had not adequately assessed the risks associated with working on the aft deck of vessels with open sterns, including consideration of engineering controls to minimise water being shipped on the aft deck.
Skandi Pacific’s safety management system (SMS) procedures for cargo securing were inadequate. There was no guidance for methods of securing cargo in adverse weather conditions.
Skandi Pacific’s safety management system (SMS) procedures for cargo handling in adverse weather conditions were inadequate. Clearly defined weather limits when cargo handling operations could be undertaken and trigger points for suspending operations were not defined, including limits for excessive water on deck.
Procedures for harbour tugs to meet inbound ships and for their co-ordinated movement in the Fremantle pilotage area were not clearly defined. On 28 February, inadequate co-ordination of the tugs and ineffective communication between Maersk Garonne’s pilot and the tug masters resulted in both tugs, the second one in particular, being significantly delayed from when they could reasonably have been expected to be on station.
Fremantle Pilots’ procedures did not include any contingency plans, including abort points, for risks identified for the pilotage.
Fremantle Pilots’ publicly available information to assist ships' masters with preparing a berth to berth passage plan was inadequate and ineffectively implemented. The information provided consisted essentially of a list of waypoints, which was routinely not followed.
Bridge resource management (BRM) was not effectively implemented on board Maersk Garonne. The ship’s passage plan for the pilotage was inadequate, its bridge team members were not actively engaged in the pilotage and they did not effectively monitor the ship’s passage.
The procedures provided to ground and flight crews by Malaysia Airlines Berhad and the towbarless tractor operator did not provide clear guidance or instruction on coordinating activities related to pushback and, in the case of the tractor operator, were informally replaced by local procedures
The Citation aircraft did not have an annunciator light to show that the parking brake is engaged, and the manufacturer’s before take-off checklist did not include a check to ensure the parking brake is disengaged.
The marker lights on some MTM passenger trains do not meet the requirements of the standard for Railway Rolling Stock Lighting and Rolling Stock Visibility, AS/RISSB 7531.3:2007.
The rules pertaining to passing a permissive signal at stop, place sole reliance on the train driver to provide separation between trains by line-of-sight observation. In the absence of any additional risk mitigation measures, this administrative control provides the least effective defence against human error or violations.
Despite a number of incidents, Pacific National did not take adequate action, before the derailment, to reduce the risk of wheel defects, especially in light of previously identified contributors such as low rim thickness.
The wheel inspection processes and systems were not effective in detecting surface damage or cracks on the R4 wheel on wagon NHIH97081 prior to the wheel failure.
Inadvertent application of opposing pitch control inputs by flight crew can activate the pitch uncoupling mechanism which, in certain high-energy situations, can result in catastrophic damage to the aircraft structure before crews are able to react.
The automatic broadcast services did not have the capacity to recognise and actively disseminate special weather reports (SPECI) to pilots, thus not meeting the intent of the SPECI alerting function provided by controller-initiated flight information service.
For many non‑major airports in Australia, flight crews of arriving aircraft can access current weather information using an Automatic Weather Information Service via very high frequency radio, which has range limitations. Where this service is available, air traffic services will generally not alert pilots to significant deteriorations in current weather conditions at such airports, increasing the risk of pilots not being aware of the changes at an appropriate time to support their decision making.
Airservices Australia had not provided en route air traffic controllers with effective simulator-based refresher training in identifying and responding to compromised separation scenarios, at intervals appropriate to ensure that controllers maintained effective practical skills.
The utilisation of shift sharing practices for the Tops controllers resulted in them sustaining a higher workload over extended periods without a break, during a time of day known to reduce performance capability.
The relevant tasks in the trouble shooting manual did not specifically identify the pitot probe as a potential source of airspeed indication failure.
