Comment: Probing investigation

The European Parliament has put its seal of approval on new legislation aimed at standardising and improving air accident investigation in Europe, and making it more transparent.

For those who doubt that European air accident investigation needs change, consider that when the investigators from one EU state make a safety recommendation following their analysis of the crash cause, the national aviation authorities in other European Aviation Safety Agency member states used to be permitted to ignore it. Also - not surprisingly - the national agencies all have their own ways of interpreting ICAO Annex 13, which defines their duties. In future they will be subject to audit with a view to ensuring they stick to agreed standards and best practise.

© Sipa Press/Rex Features The interests of victims of an air crash will be considered

The new system will still depend on nationally based investigation agencies and - as now - the agency of the country where the accident occurred will lead the probe; but they will act as a network of investigators responsible to the European Commission, and be able to share resources. The alternative - creating a single, centralised European investigator - was so fraught with legal difficulties it was rejected. EASA will not be involved in crash investigation, but it will have to oversee the implementation of recommendations.

But perhaps the most radical change is that accident investigation agencies will be required to consider the interests of the victims of the accident and their relatives or dependants. One important argument for this greater transparency is that those affected want to know quickly, and in as much detail as possible, what the investigators have discovered. Under the old rules, however, the investigator was not obliged to release that information, only to publish the final report. Under the new rules, the relatives have a right to know what is going on.

The European Cockpit Association is dissatisfied with the protection in the new law for testimony by front-line participants such as pilots, cabin crew and air traffic controllers to air accident investigators. The law provides for this protection, but adds a rider: "unless there is an overriding reason for disclosure to the judiciary". Unfortunately it is unrealistic to try to get rid of that condition. No-one, not even flightcrew and controllers, can be above the law. What is essential though, is that the law intervenes only when there is a clear case for it to do so, and usually the grounds for criminal prosecution do not exist.

Source: Flight International