A “Just Culture”? Conflicts of Interest in the Investigation of Aviation Accidents

Abstract

Summary. The sole purpose of air accident investigations should be the prevention of accidents and other incidents in the future, without apportioning blame or liability. A civil aviation safety system is based on feedback and lessons learned from accidents and incidents, while requiring the strict application of rules on confidentiality in order to ensure the availability of valuable sources of information in the future. Therefore, related data, especially sensitive safety information, should be protected in an appropriate manner. Information provided by an individual in the framework of a safety investigation should not be used against them, in full respect of constitutional principles, and national and international law. Each "involved person" who knows about an accident or serious incident should promptly notify the competent state authority for carrying out an investigation of the event. "Involved person" refers to one of the following: the owner; a member of the crew; the operator of the aircraft involved in an accident or serious incident; any person involved in the maintenance, design, manufacture of that aircraft or in the training of its crew; any person involved in air traffic control, providing flight information or providing airport services, which provided services for the aircraft concerned; staff of the national civil aviation authority; or staff of the European Aviation Safety Agency. In terms of the protection level of the organization (employer), employees who report an event or submit an application to the investigation cannot bear any prejudice from their employer because of information provided by the applicant.

Revista de la Universidad del Zulia, Volumen 12, Número 32

“…The idealistic aspiration of zero accidents, albeit statistically unachievable, keeps everyone in the aviation profession focused on building an increasingly safe aviation system (Balcerzak, 2017). We think that only legal technologies under the pandemic as the challenge for the aviation industry proper functioning may be not just a valuable, but the developmentoriented instrument.…”

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