Developing capability for air accident investigation

The Member States of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) are facing an increased challenge to improve their aircraft accident investigation capability. This area is the least compliant, according to the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP). While existing literature covers many topics of relevance to transport accident investigation, there is a paucity of research that tackles the challenge of how to improve capability in States that have limited resources or absence of a functional Accident Investigation Authority (AIA). Understanding the many aspects of what may be described as ‘capability’ represents an important step towards identifying a roadmap for the lessdeveloped States. This study explores the concept of capability in the context of a ‘not-for-blame’ State-level aircraft accident investigation function. It achieves this through a systematic literature review, followed by interviews and a survey with experienced investigators. The output is a proposed eight-dimension framework to guide lessdeveloped States to establish their AIA and develop its capability. The results of the study demonstrate that investigation is a cooperative activity depending on multi-scale collaboration by all involved States. In turn, this requires international assistance to obtain appropriate expertise and achieve the required level of quality. Emphasising the independence of the AIA in local legislation and regulations and ensuring effective separation of the investigation process from any administration and/or judicial proceedings were the most notable factors apart from the organisation model. The study provides insights by generating guidance to develop the capability of the AIA. The achievement includes a maturity model to show the evolution of the AIA over three different stages, defined as initial, established and optimised, to help prioritise actions.