In December 1995, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure (HORSCOTCI) published its "Plane Safe" report, an inquiry into safety in the general aviation and commuter sectors of the aviation industry. Recommendation (e) of the report was that: "the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation prepare and publish safety indicators;" In response to that recommendation this report has been produced jointly by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) and the…

The introduction of new technology to aviation has generally resulted in benefits to safety and efficiency but has also resulted in a range of new human factors and operational difficulties. BASl's Advanced Aircraft Research Project began in response to a number of perceived problems, which included data entry errors, monitoring failures, mode selection errors and the inappropriate manipulation of automated systems. For the purpose of this study, advanced technology aircraft, or automated aircraft, are defined as aircraft equipped with cathode ray tubes/liquid crystal displays and flight…

This report documents a six-month study to develop a framework of societal costs of aircraft accidents in Australia for the purpose of assisting the Department of Aviation in relating costs and benefits in resource management decisions and for assisting the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation in the management of aviation safety promotion programs. A detailed set of unit and total cost estimates for Australian 1980 is presented together with a literature review and recent work on approaches to valuing human life. Two cost components, fatalities and aircraft hull damage/loss, account for about…

The Australian Air Traffic Service (ATS) system provided by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is responsible for the provision of a safe, efficient, and cost-effective air traffic control and advisory service to the aviation industry within domestic and international (oceanic) airspace. This BASI study conducted during 1992 was aimed at understanding the organisational factors and system characteristics, and the underlying failures which lead to certain ATS occurrences. BASI's endeavour was to provide the CAA with a method which would allow the cause of a particular problem to be tracked to…

Changes to the airspace management system which were introduced on the 12th of December 1991, firmly established the responsibility with the pilot for aircraft collision avoidance outside controlled airspace, and for avoiding penetration of controlled airspace. In doing so it was a radical modification to the Australian Air Traffic Services (AS) system. In view of significance of the changes, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) undertook an evaluation. This evaluation took the form of the investigation of all occurrences which were deemed to be related to the AMATS changes in a four…

Accident, incident and anecdotal evidence indicate that the introduction of new technology to aviation has generally resulted in benefits to safety and efficiency (Norman and Abbott 1988). Information published by Boeing Commercial Airplanes indicates that in general, accident rates have been declining with each successive technological advance over the last thirty years (Boeing 1988). However, new technology has also resulted in a range of new human factors and operational difficulties. New tools invariably change the way a job is done, and new aircraft are no exception. The work of pilots…

This study analysed occurrences involving: fuel starvation - the state in which the fuel supply to the engine is interrupted although there is adequate fuel onboard the aircraft, and fuel exhaustion - the state in which the aircraft has become devoid of usable fuel. Fuel starvation has been a more common type of occurrence; however, the probability of the occurrence resulting in an accident has been greater for fuel exhaustion. starvation accidents and 8 fuel exhaustion accidents per annum in Australia since 1969. Fuel-related engine failures have constituted 34% of all engine failure…

The history of helicopters in Australia did not begin until after World War II. Although in 1943 the Amy planned to use helicopters for reconnaissance work in New Guinea, it was not until 1948 that the RAAF received its first helicopters, Sikorsky S51s. Civil helicopters followed in 1956, with the import of a Bristol Sycamore for ANA and a Hiller 12c for TAA early in that year. In May 1956 ANA'S helicopter began operating in Tasmania.

This report deals with information supplied by respondents to the Advanced Technology Aircraft Safety Survey and provides a detailed analysis of answers to both the 'open' and 'closed' questions. Accident, incident and anecdotal evidence indicates that the introduction of new technology to aviation has generally resulted in benefits to safety and efficiency (Norman & Abbott 1988) but has also resulted in a range of new human factors and operational difficulties. BASI's advanced technology aircraft research project was begun in response to a number of perceived problems such as data entry…

A Failure to Comply incident is defined as an air safety incident in which flight crew fail to follow an ATS clearance in controlled airspace. During 1994, BASI recorded an increase in the frequency of incidents involving failures to comply with ATS clearances. This trend continued in 1995, and the largest increase appeared to be associated with the introduction of new arrival and departure procedures at Sydney airport. The Bureau conducted a preliminary study to confirm these trends and concluded that a comprehensive study was necessary. This report draws on data collected during the…