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The Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) hosted a meeting of the European Civil Aviation Conference’s Air Accident and Incident Investigation Expert Group (ACC) over two days on 22nd and 23rd November. This major air accident investigation conference by one of Europe’s oldest aviation bodies brought together some 60 participants drawn from the European Member States of ACC together with observers from the USA, Singapore and Israel, and from ICAO, the European Commission, the European Aviation Safety Agency and EUROCONTROL. Aircraft manufacturers and the pilot community were also represented. It was a particularly special occasion for the IAA as the meeting was chaired by the Head of the AAIU Mr Jurgen Whyte.

Mr Whyte, Chief Aeronautical Officer and Chief Inspector of Air Accidents is a distinguished pilot having had an impressive 20 year career in the Irish Air Corps where he served until 1995 retiring as Officer Commanding Search and Rescue Squadron having been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He has served as a member of the Air Navigation Commission of ICAO and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. He also serves as a Board Member of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board. This summer he assumed the chairmanship of the ACC in succession to Mr Paul-Louis Arslanian from France.

The ACC group, which was established in 1991, meets twice yearly bringing together senior figures from the accident investigation authorities of States across Europe. These meetings enable them to share experience and learning in this critically important dimension of aviation safety. Such gatherings also allows the ACC to develop and coordinate the European position on policy and technical issues around accident and incident investigation, in concert with the European Commission, for presentation in international forums and notably at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ACC has developed a Code of Conduct on Cooperation in the field of accident and incident investigation, and organises annual workshops on issues of common interest and concern. Recent workshops have enabled it to prepare guidance on the location and recovery of flight recorders and aircraft wreckage underwater, and it will next year devote a workshop to the handling of incidents.

The first business for the meeting was the appointment to the position of ACC deputy chairman, by acclamation, of Mr Jean-Paul Troadec, head of the French BEA (Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation civile) the authority responsible for safety investigations into accidents or incidents in civil aviation in France. Over the day-and-a-half of meetings the group worked through a busy agenda, with presentations from Irish AAIU, from the Director of Safety Regulation at the Irish Aviation Authority, the European Cockpit Association, and from Ryanair’s Chief Pilot, Capt. Ray Conway. The group addressed the issue surrounding the securing of a ‘just culture’ in aviation safety, and the relationship between technical and judicial investigations into air accidents. It also reviewed accidents and incidents investigated by European safety investigation authorities over the past year, including an update by the French and Brazilian authorities on the investigation into the loss of Air France 447 over the Atlantic. Following a review of practices for recovering aircraft wreckage and flight recorders from underwater locations it finalised its guidance for States on these topical and important matters.

ACC also took the opportunity to review recent and ongoing work in ICAO, including in the Panel which is preparing a new Annex to the Chicago Convention, relating to safety management. The preparation of a dedicated Safety Management Annex reaffirms that safety is ICAO’s primary focus and will facilitate a coordinated and uniform approach to the promulgation of practices, a necessary condition to consistently achieve the highest levels of safety throughout the international aviation system. It also agreed its forward work programme, and reviewed the preparations for next year’s ACC Workshop, mentioned above. ACC will next meet in mid-2012, at a venue to be confirmed.

Finally, while the overall level of safety in international civil aviation is remarkable, with a global accident rate of approximately four accidents per million departures, achieving further safety improvements and identifying emerging safety issues and their implications is a vital ongoing process and one which the Dublin event was a significant part of.