Thousands of safety occurrences involving Australian-registered and foreign aircraft are reported to the ATSB every year by individuals and organisations in Australia’s aviation industry, and by the public. The aim of the ATSB’s statistical report series is to give information back to pilots, operators, regulators, and other aviation industry participants on what accidents and incidents have happened, how often they are happening, and what we can learn from them. In the 10-year period of 2005 to 2014, 254 aircraft have been involved in fatal accidents in Australia, leading to 374 fatalities.…

The Aviation Short Investigation Bulletin covers a range of the ATSB’s short investigations and highlights valuable safety lessons for pilots, operators and safety managers. Released periodically, the Bulletin provides a summary of the less-complex factual investigation reports conducted by the ATSB. The results, based on information supplied by organisations or individuals involved in the occurrence, detail the facts behind the event, as well as any safety actions undertaken. The Bulletin also highlights important Safety Messages for the broader aviation community, drawing on earlier ATSB…

Why the ATSB did this research Occasionally pilots become incapacitated during flight. Incapacitations can arise from different reasons. They include the development of an acute medical condition, changes in environmental conditions during the flight, or the effects of a pre-existing medical condition. The effect of incapacitation on a pilot can be restricting their flight duties for the remainder of the flight, or for single-pilot operations, a collision with terrain. This research report documents pilot incapacitation occurrences in high-capacity air transport, low…

Why the ATSB did this research Through routine trend monitoring of safety occurrence reporting, the ATSB became aware of a potential issue surrounding the frequency of light aircraft engine failures and malfunctions (both Australian VH and recreationally-registered). To formally and more fully examine the contributing factors behind these statistical observations, the ATSB initiated this Aviation Research investigation (under the provisions of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003). What the ATSB found Over the 6-year study period between 2009 and 2014, 322 engine failures or…

The Aviation Short Investigation Bulletin covers a range of the ATSB’s short investigations and highlights valuable safety lessons for pilots, operators and safety managers. Released periodically, the Bulletin provides a summary of the less-complex factual investigation reports conducted by the ATSB. The results, based on information supplied by organisations or individuals involved in the occurrence, detail the facts behind the event, as well as any safety actions undertaken. The Bulletin also highlights important Safety Messages for the broader aviation community, drawing on earlier ATSB…

When aviation safety incidents and accidents happen, they are reported to the ATSB. The most serious of these are investigated, but most reports are used to help the ATSB build a picture of how prevalent certain types of occurrences are in different types of aviation operations. The ATSB uses this data to proactively look for emerging safety trends. By monitoring trends, issues of concern can be communicated and action taken to prevent accidents. Proactive trend monitoring is a data-driven process, reviewing all occurrences to see if there are subtle changes…

Background The ATSB is leading the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia is providing advice, expertise and support to the ATSB. With the bathymetric survey completed, the underwater search commenced in October 2014. Summary The underwater search is being carried out utilising vessels equipped with a towfish – an underwater vehicle which carries various instruments used to survey the seafloor. The key instruments are side scan sonar and the multi-beam echo sounders which survey the nadir (the gap in side scan sonar coverage under…

Background The ATSB is leading the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) performed drift modelling based on the revised search area defined in the report MH370 - Flight Path Analysis Update released on 8 October 2014. Overview Looking at past accidents, there is almost always some debris left floating after an aircraft crashes in water. The opportunity to locate and recover debris from the sea surface diminishes rapidly over the first few weeks from the time of a crash. Thereafter…

The Aviation Short Investigation Bulletin covers a range of the ATSB’s short investigations and highlights valuable safety lessons for pilots, operators and safety managers. Released periodically, the Bulletin provides a summary of the less-complex factual investigation reports conducted by the ATSB. The results, based on information supplied by organisations or individuals involved in the occurrence, detail the facts behind the event, as well as any safety actions undertaken. The Bulletin also highlights important Safety Messages for the broader aviation community, drawing on earlier ATSB…

The Australian Airports Association (AAA) commissioned preparation of this Airport Practice Note to provide aerodrome operators with species information fact sheets to assist them to manage the wildlife hazards at their aerodrome. The species information fact sheets were originally published in June 2004 by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as Bird Information Fact Sheets. The AAA was prompted to revise and add additional fact sheets for supplementary species by the release of the ATSB Australian aviation wildlife strike statistics 2004 – 2013 report. This report listed Kites and…