Given the heightened interest, the ATSB has released an interim report on progress with its investigation into the tragic Benalla fatal accident, emphasising its complexity due to destruction of the aircraft and the need to carefully address all the safety issues. The ATSB Preliminary Report into this six-fatality accident in a Piper Cheyenne was released on 31 August to provide early safety advice and warning to the industry. The aircraft tracked from Bankstown to the Benalla area via Jervis Bay and the pilot had planned to conduct a Global Positioning System (GPS) approach at…

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has been advised that two people were fatally injured in a Robinson R44 helicopter crash which occurred at about 6.30pm on 8 September 2004. The accident occurred some 30NM, West South West of Roma, Queensland. The ATSB is sending an investigation team to the site to attempt to determine the causal factors that led to this tragic accident and to make any necessary recommendations to prevent future accidents. Until the team has arrived on site the ATSB will not be able to comment on the circumstances of this tragic accident.

Failure to keep a proper lookout by either vessel has been identified as the immediate cause of the ninth collision in five years between a fishing vessel and a ship off the Australian coast. In the early hours of 21 August 2003, the fishing vessel Jenabar collided with the bulk carrier Lancelot off Diamond Head on the New South Wales coast. The report on the collision by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) also identifies that over-reliance on board Lancelot on information from the automatic radar plotting aid contributed to the collision. On this occasion nobody was hurt, though…

The ATSB investigation Preliminary Report into the accident in which six lives were lost when a privately operated Piper Cheyenne aircraft crashed near Benalla, Victoria, on 28 July 2004, found that the aircraft was off course for a substantial period. The aircraft departed Bankstown, NSW that morning, and travelled via Jervis Bay. The pilot then contacted air traffic control requesting a track from abeam Ulladulla to Benalla. The route flown did not pass directly over any ground based navigation aids and the pilot relied on the global positioning system (GPS) for navigation and for the…

After allowing for activity levels, ATSB research indicates that Robinson R22 helicopters have a similar safety profile to other comparable helicopters. This study was prompted by increasing concerns about light utility helicopter safety in Australia. Light utility helicopters make up half the registered fleet yet were involved in 72 per cent of all helicopter accidents between 1985 and 2003. The report compared accident involvement and accident rates of four helicopter models; Robinson R22, Bell/Agusta/Kawasaki 47G, Hughes/Schweizer 269 and Hiller UH-12E. The Robinson R22 was involved in…

The ATSB's aviation safety survey of commercial pilots, Common Flying Errors, has revealed that, violations of standard operating procedures were more prevalent in general aviation and were involved in 11.8% of all events. The survey asked pilots to identify the main factors contributing to errors and the defences they used to recover. Most errors occurred en route, distantly followed by flight preparation errors. All categories of pilot experienced errors while executing procedures en route, such as not completing their landing checklist, and misprocessing information from their operational…

The ATSB has released a major accident report on behalf of the Government of East Timor into the fatal accident on 31 January 2003 which resulted in six fatalities. The ATSB found that the accident occurred when a large Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76 cargo jet aircraft crashed at Baucau, East Timor in bad weather after impacting terrain while attempting to land. On behalf of the East Timor Government the ATSB, with the assistance of Australian Defence (DFS-ADF and DSTO) officers and the Moscow-based Commonwealth of Independent States Interstate Aviation Committee, investigated the accident. The…

A study by the ATSB has shown that just under half of the general aviation fatal accidents in the ten year period between 1991 and 2000 were Uncontrolled Flight Into Terrain (UFIT) accidents, where an intact aircraft collided with a stationary obstacle or terrain after an in-flight loss of control had occurred. In more than half of the UFIT fatal accidents an event that was either not averted, or not managed appropriately by the pilot, or was not within the pilot's control, preceded the loss of control. However, in the vast majority of UFIT fatal accidents that occurred during low-level…

The failure of officers to use modern navigation bridge management principles was the major factor in the grounding of the Bahamas registered passenger ship Astor during the ship's departure from Townsville at around 7 pm on 26 February 2004, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation report released today. The ATSB report into the Astor grounding released today states that the ship grounded on its port side as it was turning from Townsville harbour into Platypus Channel. The ship heeled about three degrees to starboard and, after about three minutes, slid clear…

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has dispatched a team of four investigators and support staff to determine the circumstances surrounding the tragic accident near Benalla, Victoria, on 28 July 2004. The factual circumstances to hand are that at about 11 am on the 28th of July, a Piper Cheyenne, VH-TNP, en-route Bankstown (NSW) to Benalla (Victoria) with six people on board disappeared from radar about 33km south-east of Wangaratta, where weather conditions were low cloud and rain. Airservices Australia will be providing these radar and air traffic control tapes to the Bureau to aid in…