South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)
Below is the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s response to questions (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), and (f).
a) The table below provides details on the total number of investigation conducted over the past three financial years by the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s Accident and Incident Investigation Division. In line with international standards, and as prescribed in Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), aircraft accidents are classified into two categories, i.e. as either an Accident or Serious Incident.
TOTAL NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS IN THE PAST THREE FINANCIAL YEARS |
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Year of Occurrence (Financial Year) |
Accidents |
Serious Incidents |
Total |
2014/2015 |
120 |
77 |
197 |
2015/2016 |
110 |
26 |
136 |
2016 - Feb 2017 |
69 |
14 |
83 |
NOTE: The 2016/2017 financial year statistics excludes March 2017 occurrences, which will be tallied only at the end of March 2017.
TOTAL NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS PER PROVINCE IN THE PAST THREE FINANCIAL YEARS |
||||||||||
Financial Year |
GP |
NW |
LP |
FS |
EC |
WC |
MP |
NC |
KZN |
O/B |
2014/2015 |
37 |
8 |
10 |
6 |
17 |
12 |
12 |
4 |
10 |
4 |
2015/2016 |
33 |
11 |
12 |
3 |
14 |
12 |
9 |
1 |
6 |
9 |
2016/2017 |
19 |
7 |
12 |
2 |
4 |
10 |
5 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
NOTES:
b) The nature of aircraft accident and incident investigations differ depending on the occurrence. Investigation are conducted in line with requirements outlined in Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This means:
c) The table below outlines the total annual costs, over a three financial year period, of activities associated with aircraft accident and incident investigations.
ANNUAL COSTS OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION FOR THE PAST THREE FINACIAL YEARS |
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Financial Year |
2014/2015 |
2015/2016 |
2016/2017 |
Total Cost |
R 16 919 937.45 |
R 18 378 990.80 |
R 17 736 577.23 |
d) The outcome of investigations revealed the following as main probable cause(s) and contributing factors for the accident or serious incident:
OUTCOMES OF THE AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT AND INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS |
|
Occurrence Causals |
Contributing factor(s) |
Human Error |
|
Aircraft Technical (mechanical failure of a component) |
|
Aircraft Operations |
|
e) The primary lessons learned from each investigations is that we are then able to determined what caused the accident or serious incident and what are the other factors that contributed to the accident.
f) The SACAA has formed partnerships with the industry aimed at developing and implementing measures that prevent a repeat of similar incidents. The following has thus far been implemented:
NW820E