The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is Australia’s national transport safety investigator. When things go wrong in transport safety, we find out what happened so it doesn’t happen again. We don’t investigate to lay blame but to improve safety. Making safe transport safer The ATSB’s accident investigation role is a fundamental part of Australia’s transport safety framework.  Equally important is the information we hold on safety related events. We use that information to identify safety issues and trends.  These issues and trends—and what we…

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading a sea floor mapping and underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia is providing advice, expertise and support to the ATSB. The search comprises two planned phases. Phase one, a bathymetric survey providing a detailed map of the sea floor topography of the search area and phase two, an underwater search using side scan sonar. Bathymetric survey Bathymetry is the study and mapping of sea floor topography. It involves obtaining measurements of the ocean depth and is…

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 Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading a seabed mapping and underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia is providing advice, expertise and support to the ATSB. There are two planned phases of the search. Phase one, a bathymetric survey providing a detailed map of the seafloor topography of the search area and phase two, a deep ocean search using scanning equipment or submersible vehicles. The information gained in phase one will be used to build a map of the sea floor in the search area, which will aid…

Background At the request of the Malaysian Government, Australia is leading the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. All the available data indicates the aircraft entered the sea close to a long but narrow arc of the southern Indian Ocean. The underwater search is a complex operation that will involve a range of vessels, equipment and expertise to cover 60,000 square kilometres of ocean floor—roughly the size of Tasmania. The intensified underwater search The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is coordinating the continuous underwater search phase for MH370. This is…

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…

Under the provisions of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003, ATSB investigators may interview anyone involved directly or indirectly in a transport safety occurrence. Individuals not directly involved in a particular accident or incident may also be interviewed regarding certain operations or processes within an organisation. ATSB interviews It is ATSB policy to electronically record interviews wherever possible. Electronically recorded interviews ensure both parties have access to an accurate record of what was discussed for later reference. Recording also allows investigators to…

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 ATSB has been advised that the hours flown data provided by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) and used for the calculation of occurrence rates by aircraft type, may have been under-reported for some aircraft types used in charter operations. The ATSB is awaiting new hours flown data from BITRE and will update the reports accordingly when this data is available. Why the ATSB did this research This is the first in a series of research investigations looking at technical failures reported to the ATSB between 2008 and 2012. This report reviews power plant…

Background At the request of the Malaysian Government, Australia is leading the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean. The search is a complex operation that involves vast areas with only limited data and aircraft flight information available. Over-water searches Over-water aircraft accident locations are usually found by conducting a broad-area aerial search. The search area is generally determined by a combination of: Position information from ground-based radar systems (maximum range is generally 250 NM) Position information automatically transmitted from…