How does Australia's aviation safety record compare with that of other Western countries? To answer this, fatal accident and fatality rates for Australia were compared with similar rates for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, between 1995 and 2004 (the latest year for which comparable data was available). The ATSB aviation accident and incident database was searched to identify all fatal accidents involving Australian civil registered aircraft during this period. The dataset was then matched with comparable datasets for the overseas countries, taking into…

Technical Analysis Report " Short Bros. SD360-300, VH-SUM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On 13 August 2000, a Shorts SD-360 aircraft (VH-SUM) sustained an in-flight shutdown of the right engine, which was later attributed to the seizure of the gas generator and power sections of the turbine. Further examination of the engine by the ATSB and Pratt & Whitney Canada showed the seizure to have stemmed from the distress and severe overheating of the engine number one bearing in the compressor section. Despite the degree of damage to the bearing races, evidence of electrical arcing damage was found on the…

Producing the annual review is in line with a recommendation of the McGrath report into the former Bureau of Air Safety Investigation released in August 1999 to improve the transparency and accountability of the Bureau. Creation of the ATSB on 1 July 1999 brought together the safety investigation, statistical analysis, research and safety program management of the Commonwealth's transport safety role in one multi-modal agency within the Department of Transport and Regional Services. ATSB intends to prepare an annual review to provide all stakeholders with an overview of its activities and…

Executive Director's message The 2005-06 financial year continued to have a substantial building element for the ATSB as rail investigation further matured and aviation investigators were trained and prepared for 2006-07 implementation of a new aviation safety database with associated project and risk management. The Bureau is continuing its commitment to training its investigators through the Diploma of Transport Safety Investigation. In 2005-06, ten staff completed the Transport Safety Investigation (TSI) Diploma and a further 25 were progressing through the coursework and mentoring. In…

Area navigation global navigation satellite system (RNAV (GNSS)) approaches have been used in Australia since 1998 and have now become a common non-precision approach. Since their inception, however, there has been minimal research of pilot performance during normal operations outside of the high-capacity airline environment. Three thousand five hundred Australian pilots with an RNAV (GNSS) endorsement were mailed a questionnaire asking them to rate their perceived workload, situational awareness, chart interpretability, and safety on a number of different approach types. Further questions…

Transport accidents are a leading cause of injury, both fatal and non-fatal. The primary purpose of this publication is to provide a broad overview of serious injury due to transport accidents in Australia in the one-year period 2003-04, the latest year for which data are available. Serious injury is defined for this report as an injury which results in the person being admitted to hospital, and subsequently discharged alive either on the same day or after one or more nights stay in a hospital bed (i.e. deaths are excluded). This report presents estimates of the numbers of persons seriously…

Transport accidents are a leading cause of injury, both fatal and non-fatal. The primary purpose of this publication is to provide a broad overview of serious injury due to land transport accidents in Australia in the one-year period 200304, the latest year for which data are available. The main focus is on accidents involving road vehicles travelling on public roads (called travelling in traffic). Road vehicles include motor vehicles, pedal cycles and other road vehicles such as trams, animals or animal-drawn vehicles (when they travel on the road). Serious injury is defined for this report…

The ATSB carried out a safety deficiency investigation in accordance with powers under section 19CB (1) (d) of the Air Navigation Act 1920. SAFETY DEFICIENCY An allegation was made to the ATSB that Australian registered Boeing 747-300 aircraft operating from Bangkok airport in Thailand were failing to meet take-off performance requirements. A 'specified' flight was cited as demonstrating that the aircraft had not complied. Comprehensive analysis of data from the 'specified' flight, as well as data from other flights departing Bangkok under similar conditions, was undertaken. Documentation…

This report was tabled in the Australian Parliament on 23 November 1999 Class G airspace (or uncontrolled airspace) has the lowest level of service and the fewest restrictions on aircraft operations. In Australian Class G airspace, third-party directed traffic information is provided to pilots of aircraft operating under the instrument flight rules. There have been a number of attempts to change the operation of Class G airspace since its introduction in 1995. As part of the Airspace 2000 program, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) decided to conduct a 'Class G demonstration'…

Executive Summary The partial wreckage of a Cessna 206 aircraft was recovered from an area in the Gulf of Carpentaria, near where an aircraft of this type disappeared on 24-November 1999 (ATSB Occurrence number 199905562). Photographs and video footage of the wreckage were supplied to the ATSB and reviewed with a view to gathering further detail regarding the accident. The ATSB subsequently requested that the propeller and attitude indicator instrument from the aircraft be shipped to the bureau's Canberra laboratories for further study and analysis. On the basis of damage to several aircraft…