• No.152/1, Minuwangoda Road, Katunayake

Overview

Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka is responsible for the investigation of aircraft accidents/ incidents within the territory of Sri Lanka and any aircraft registered in Sri Lanka or an aircraft operated by an operator of Sri Lanka which is involved in an accident or serious incident overseas.

The administrative functions are carried out by the Aviation Safety Monitoring Unit.

Aircraft Accident Investigation Board

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) will be appointed by the Authority as per the provisions laid down in the Civil Aviation Act No. 14 of 2010 as the case may be. In addition investigators would participate in overseas investigations of accidents / incidents involving aircraft registered in Sri Lanka or aircraft which are operated by an operator of Sri Lanka as appropriate. When carrying out investigations, the appointed AAIB required to gather, record and analyze all the available information on the accidents and incidents, determine the causes and/or the contributing factors, identify the possible safety issues and draw up safety recommendations to address the safety issues to rectify them on the completion of investigation.

Objective

The sole objective of an investigation of an accident is the prevention of accidents and incidents due to similar causes in future. It is not to apportion blame or liability.

Definition

An occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which, in the case of a manned aircraft, takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight until such time as all such persons have disembarked, or in the case of an unmanned aircraft, takes place between the time the aircraft is ready to move with the purpose of flight until such time as it comes to rest at the end of the flight and the primary propulsion system is shut down, in which:

  • a person is fatally or seriously injured as a result of:
    • being in the aircraft, or
    • direct contact with any part of the aircraft, including parts which have become detached from the aircraft, or
    • direct exposure to jet blast,

    • except when the injuries are from natural causes, self-inflicted or inflicted by other persons, or when the injuries are to stowaways hiding outside the areas normally available to the passengers and crew; or

  • the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure which:
    • adversely affects the structural strength, performance or flight characteristics of the aircraft, and
    • would normally require major repair or replacement of the affected component,

    • except for engine failure or damage, when the damage is limited to a single engine, (including its cowlings or accessories), to propellers, wing tips, antennas, probes, vanes, tires, brakes, wheels, fairings, panels, landing gear doors, windscreens, the aircraft skin (such as small dents or puncture holes), or for minor damages to main rotor blades, tail rotor blades, landing gear, and those resulting from hail or bird strike (including holes in the radome); or

  • the aircraft is missing or is completely inaccessible.
    • Note 01 - For statistical uniformity only, an injury resulting in death within thirty days of the date of the accident is classified, by ICAO, as a fatal injury.
    • Note 02 - An aircraft is considered to be missing when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located.

Actions, omissions, events, conditions, or a combination thereof, which led to the accident or incident. The identification of causes does not imply the assignment of fault or the determination of administrative, civil or criminal liability

An occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft which affects or could affect the safety of operation.

An incident involving circumstances indicating that there was a high probability of an accident and associated with the operation of an aircraft which, in the case of a manned aircraft, takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight until such time as all such persons have disembarked, or in the case of an unmanned aircraft, takes place between the time the aircraft is ready to move with the purpose of flight until such time as it comes to rest at the end of the flight and the primary propulsion system is shut down.

List of Serious incident - (Example includes)

The incidents listed below are examples of what may be serious incidents. However, the list is not exhaustive list. and, depending on the context, items on the list may not be classified as serious incidents if effective defences remained between the incident and the credible scenario.

  1. Near collisions requiring an avoidance manoeuvre to avoid a collision or an unsafe situation or when an avoidance action would have been appropriate.
  2. Collisions not classified as accidents.
  3. Controlled flight into terrain only marginally avoided.
  4. Aborted take-offs on a closed or engaged runway, on a taxiway1 or unassigned runway.
  5. Take-offs from a closed or engaged runway, from a taxiway1 or unassigned runway.
  6. Landings or attempted landings on a closed or engaged runway, on a taxiway1, on an unassigned runway or on unintended landing locations such as roadways.
  7. Retraction of a landing gear leg or a wheels-up landing not classified as an accident.
  8. Dragging during landing of a wing tip, an engine pod or any other part of the aircraft, when not classified as an accident.
  9. Gross failures to achieve predicted performance during take-off or initial climb.
  10. Fires and/or smoke in the cockpit, in the passenger compartment, in cargo compartments or engine fires, even though such fires were extinguished by the use of extinguishing agents.
  11. Events requiring the emergency use of oxygen by the flight crew.
  12. Aircraft structural failures or engine disintegrations, including uncontained turbine engine failures, not classified as an accident.
  13. Multiple malfunctions of one or more aircraft systems seriously affecting the operation of the aircraft.
  14. Flight crew incapacitation in flight: a) for single pilot operations (including remote pilot); or b) for multi-pilot operations for which flight safety was compromised because of a significant increase in workload for the remaining crew.
  15. Fuel quantity level or distribution situations requiring the declaration of an emergency by the pilot, such as insufficient fuel, fuel exhaustion, fuel starvation, or inability to use all usable fuel on board.
  16. Runway incursions classified with severity A. The Manual on the Prevention of Runway Incursions (Doc 9870) contains information on the severity classifications.
  17. Take-off or landing incidents. Incidents such as under-shooting, overrunning or running off the side of runways.
  18. System failures (including loss of power or thrust), weather phenomena, operations outside the approved flight envelope or other occurrences which caused or could have caused difficulties controlling the aircraft.
  19. Failures of more than one system in a redundancy system mandatory for flight guidance and navigation.
  20. The unintentional or, as an emergency measure, the intentional release of a slung load or any other load carried external to the aircraft.

Regulatory Material relating to Aircraft Accident Investigation