The scene of an accident involving a large passenger aircraft contains a body of evidence that can take a team of investigators to sift through. Such evidence may consist of damage to the aircraft, injuries to flight crew and passengers and data obtained from the aircraft’s flight recorders. However, there is also a diverse body of evidence located away from the actual scene that investigators can utilise to assist when determining the causal factor(s) of an accident.
One of the primary sources of evidence is from witnesses. This could include actual survivors or those who saw the accident occur –
additionally, those that may have seen the aircraft flying prior to impact.
The evidence obtained from witnesses may assist in gaining an understanding on how the aircraft was flying – e.g. any obvious signs of damage, smoke from the aircraft, unusual sound(s) etc. To gain evidence from witnesses, investigators will need to have an understanding on interviewing techniques – especially when interviewing witnesses who may be under psychological stress due to either being directly involved or from seeing the accident.
Another source of evidence is that from Operations – which is essentially the activities related to planning, management and performance of the respective flight. This includes information relating to the crew (training, qualifications, experience, duty times etc);
corporate information (SOPS, manuals); flight planning details (NOTAMs, weather forecasts, fuel and cargo loading sheets); ATC operations (qualifications, experience, duty times and even technical aspects such as vectoring, audio and radar recordings, navigational services etc).
Information related to the Maintenance of the respective aircraft may also provide an insight into an accident. This information includes
whether the aircraft has been maintained in accordance to specified standards as well as determining the maintenance history – including ascertaining the procedures used, the qualifications and experience of the maintenance personnel, the correct use and installation of parts and equipment and finally, determining the history of the airframe, engines and various components.
The evidence from both the Operations and Maintenance activities can be obtained by the combination of interviewing and analysing the appropriate material evidence from the respective group(s).
While the scene of an aircraft accident may contain a large body of evidence, there are multiple sources of other evidence that
investigators need to utilise in order to ascertain the causal factor(s) of an accident. The primary source is from witnesses – either those directly involved in the accident or those that observed the aircraft prior to the accident. The Operations components also provide valuable evidence relating to the accident as with information relating to the Maintenance of the respective aircraft.
Investigators do need to utilise skills associated with interviewing techniques and data analysis when obtaining evidence from these sources but when combined, these sources of evidence may provide valuable insight into the causal factor(s) of an aircraft accident.
