When aviation safety incidents and accidents happen, they are reported to the ATSB. The most serious of these are investigated, but most reports are used to help the ATSB build a picture of how prevalent certain types of occurrences are in different types of aviation operations.
The ATSB uses this data to proactively look for emerging safety trends. By monitoring trends, issues of concern can be communicated and action taken to prevent accidents.
Proactive trend monitoring is a data-driven process, reviewing all occurrences to see if there are subtle changes that may point to a larger issue. Potential issues are then monitored by the ATSB, and shared with industry and other government agencies. Safety actions can then be taken by the most appropriate people to prevent these issues resulting in accidents. These trends can also point to the need for the ATSB to target particular types of occurrences for investigation.
This report summarises significant trends in Australian aviation from January to June 2015, and resultant safety action being taken to address these trends.