[Peetwo]

Part II of Comedy HR comes to HVH (ATSB) studios -

High viz Hood and his merry men take over the Comedy Hour -



Today in the Oz Dick and 'that man' yet again 'rock' Hoody's Chookhouse shed...

Why was crash pilot at controls?

12:00amEAN HIGGINS

Doubts about the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s ability to conduct critical investigations have deepened.

Via the Oz today:
  

ATSB vow to be more selective in investigations


ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood, right, and Transport Minister Darren Chester.

The Australian
12:00AM November 10, 2017

ANNABEL HEPWORTH

Aviation Editor
Sydney
@HepworthAnnabel

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The nation’s transport safety ­investigator has vowed to become more selective in the accidents and incidents it investigates as it tries to rein in a backlog of reports.

Australian Transport Safety ­Bureau chief commissioner Greg Hood said the ATSB was trying to “improve its efficiency by becoming more data-driven”.

While the ATSB has a target of publishing 90 per cent of complex investigations within 12 months, in 2016-17 it got just 32 per cent away within that time frame.

“By being more selective with our investigations, and with the introduction of more resources through a recent recruitment drive, we will be in a better position to meet this target over the coming year,” Mr Hood said.

Fresh questions about the ATSB’s ability to conduct air safety investigations in a timely manner were raised this week when it emerged that an investigation into a 2015 Mount Hotham occurrence involving pilot Max Quartermain — the pilot involved in February’s Essendon plane crash — will now not be released until February.

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester said he understood the report had been delayed for many reasons, including the need to consider recently-obtained material.

“Timeframes for investigations can vary based on their complexity, available resourcing and a range of other factors,” Mr Chester said.

“I am confident that, should a critical safety issue be identified during the course of an investigation, the ATSB will immediately bring this to the attention of relevant authorities and organisations to be addressed.”

Mr Chester also backed ATSB moves to improve the timeliness of its reports.

The ATSB’s latest annual report shows that for complex aviation investigations, 39 were completed in 2016-17, with 31 per cent done within 12 months, compared to 18 per cent the previous year. At June 30, there were 69 ongoing complex aviation investigations.

Mr Hood said the ATSB aimed to complete most of its complex investigations within 12 months.

As there were 17,000 incidents, serious incidents and accident notifications made to the ATSB last year — an average of 46 per day — “it is not possible for the ATSB to investigate everything”.



He said the ATSB was looking to use its data of safety-related occurrences to bolster its efficiency.

“By actively interrogating this data, we are able to more selectively allocate our resources to investigating those accidents and incidents that have the greatest potential for improving transport safety, with a particular focus on the travelling public,” Mr Hood said.

“If there is no obvious public safety benefit to investigating an accident, the ATSB is less likely to conduct a complex, resource-intensive investigation.”

The 2014 Aviation Safety Regulatory Review report, chaired by industry veteran David Forsyth, compared the time the ATSB had taken to produce reports compared to the US’s National Transportation Safety Board, New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Britain’s Air ­Accident Investigation.

This followed criticism in submissions over the time the ATSB took to produce safety reports.

“The panel considers that the ATSB’s reporting timelines are longer than desirable and significant delays for some individual reports are a concern,” the report found. “However, the panel notes that the timelines are broadly consistent with international performance.” That analysis looked at 2004 to 2013.

Mr Hood said that daily senior managers and safety data analysts would review notifications they got in the last 24 hours. Decisions would be made on whether to investigate and what type of investigation to do.

“There are diminished safety benefits from investigating occurrences where there are obvious contributing factors, such as unauthorised low-level flying or flying visually into poor weather,” Mr Hood said.

“Instead, we are refocusing our efforts on educating pilots on the dangers of high-risk activity.”

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Comment from Sandy... :

...I think we get it, ATSB with around 100 staff and the CEO (former Civil Aviation Safety Authority Manager) in his hi vis jacket can take as much time as they like to finalise reports. Rubbery figures? In this report we have 17,000 incidents to consider, funny, it was a nice round 15,000 a couple of days ago. Then we have to work out what is a ‘complex’ incident, do they mean like the one where they and CASA whacked the pilot who ditched at Norfolk Island? Luckily the Senate took an interest and after nearly nine years it seems that the authorities were at fault, not the unfortunate and officially maligned pilot. The first investigations, with G. Hood working in CASA at the time, were sloppy at best or malicious at worst, take your pick.

Alex in the Rises. 

MTF...P2