The most common occurrence type for accidents and serious incidents over 10 years were:
- forced or precautionary landing: 5 accidents and 7 serious incidents
- engine failure or malfunction:4 accidents and 7 serious incidents
- collision with terrain: 6 accidents and 1 serious incident.
The top 3 taxonomies were:
- aircraft separation issues: 44 incidents
- loss of separation: 28 incidents
- bird strikes: 25 incidents.
| Occurrence type | Accidents | Serious incidents |
|---|---|---|
| Forced / Precautionary landing(L2) | 5 | 7 |
| Engine failure or malfunction | 4 | 7 |
| Collision with terrain | 6 | 1 |
| Near collision | 0 | 5 |
| Taxiing collision / Near collision | 3 | 0 |
| Air-ground-air | 0 | 3 |
| Other Miscellaneous | 2 | 0 |
| Abnormal engine indications | 0 | 2 |
| Aircraft preparation | 0 | 2 |
| Collision | 0 | 2 |
| Exhaustion | 1 | 0 |
| Ground strike | 1 | 0 |
| Hard landing | 1 | 0 |
| Landing gear / Indication | 1 | 0 |
| Loss of control | 1 | 0 |
| Other Ground operations | 1 | 0 |
| Runway excursion | 1 | 0 |
| Runway incursion | 1 | 0 |
| Aircraft separation(L2)/ Issues(L3) | 0 | 1 |
| Diversion / Return(L2) | 0 | 1 |
| Doors / Exits | 0 | 1 |
| Foreign Object Damage / Debris | 0 | 1 |
| Fuel | 0 | 1 |
| Objects falling from aircraft | 0 | 1 |
| Starvation | 0 | 1 |
Occurrence types – event risk classification
Analysing ATSB's event risk classification (ERC) for occurrences in the sector helps to gain further clarity on the sector risk. ERC analysis shows higher safety risk from occurrences related to airspace conflicts such as Aircraft Separation.
Based on ERC classification the top 4 occurrence taxonomies are:
- aircraft separation issues
- air-ground-air
- engine failure or malfunction
- loss of separation.
| Year | Very high | High | Medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 2015 | 0 | 2 | 16 |
| 2016 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 2017 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 2020 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 2023 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
Safety factors
ATSB applies safety factors to certain occurrences to identify underlying conditions or factors that contributed to the occurrence. Safety factors are an event or condition that increases safety risks. This means it increases the likelihood of an occurrence or the consequences associated with an occurrence.
| Condition or factor | Very high | High | Medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communicating and coordinating - External | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| Monitoring and checking (Aircraft operation action) | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Fracture (L2) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Technical failure mechanism (L2 Other) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Assessing and planning (Aircraft operation action) | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mechanical discontinuity (L2) | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Aircraft handling | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Wind | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Communicating and coordinating - Internal | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Pre-flight inspecting | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Assessing and planning (ATS action) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wear (L2) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Using equipment (Aircraft operation action) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Communicating | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Equipment knowledge / skills | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Light conditions | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Task experience / recency | 0 | 0 | 1 |