Why an Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau ?
The development of civil aviation has shown that it is necessary to draw up international regulations which guarantee that civil aviation and the air traffic infrastructure comply with the same Standards. It is therefore the intention of Articles 26, 37 and 38 of the Chicago Agreement that signatory states are obliged to comply with recommendations and directives issued by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), as long as they do not contradict their own laws. Amongst other things, this Agreement requires that the signatory states undertake to carry out investigations into those air accidents that take place within their own territory. It also provides for the fact that representatives from the countries in which the aircraft in question was designed, built, approved or registered also take part in the investigation.
Within the context of the Agreement of 5 December 1944, the ICAO issued Appendix 13 for the attention of its member states, containing guidelines as to how investigations into aircraft accidents and serious incidents should be carried out. The sole purpose of these investigations is the prevention of aircraft accidents and therefore the improvement of aviation safety. In the beginning, aircraft accident investigations were frequently carried out by the supervisory authority. As a supervisory authority could be involved in the actual root cause of an air accident, by issuing inappropriate regulations or by failing in its obligations, a separation of influence is appropriate here. In the 1950s, the ICAO therefore recommended that air accidents be investigated by independent bodies.
The Swiss Parliament pronounced the formation of an Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which commenced operations in 1960. The AAIB is integrated into the General Secretariat of the Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC).
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