Every year, the ATSB receives up to 17,000 notifications of safety incidents and accidents in the aviation, marine, and rail sectors. They range in significance, from a major accident with loss of life, to incidents with minimal or no damage.
The vast majority of the reported occurrences do not result in an investigation. Instead, information about the occurrences is retained in the ATSB’s databases, which provide a detailed overview of transport safety in Australia that is used for safety data recording, analysis and research.
The ATSB is now using this information to produce Occurrence Briefs – concise reports that detail the facts surrounding an occurrence as provided in the initial notification and from any follow-up information.
ATSB Chief Commissioner Greg Hood said Occurrence Briefs will provide additional opportunities to learn from the experiences of others.
“The Australian transport industry has a very good reporting culture,” Mr Hood said. “While the vast majority of the notifications submitted do not warrant a full ATSB investigation, many of them can still yield useful safety messages.
“These new Occurrence Briefs will allow for greater industry awareness of potential safety issues and possible safety actions.”
Because the briefs are not investigations under the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003, the information within them will be de-identified. The safety messages are drawn from the details provided in the initial notifications.