ABSTRACT
Any discussion on aviation-related incident and accident investigation invariably prompts a number of questions, many of which raise fairly fundamental issues about the nature and purpose of the investigation process. For example, should time and resources be expended on the investigations of incidents rather than focusing all the eff ort on the major aviation accidents? What is the underlying purpose of investigations and who should conduct them, and, if a full-scale fi eld investigation is conducted, what benefi ts can be gained from this as against a more limited and less resource intensive “desk-top” enquiry? One of the aims of this chapter will be an attempt to answer these questions and to consider, in some detail, the practice and process of investigation in the aviation sphere. Th e information on which this chapter is based is drawn from fi rst-hand experience of the investigation of air-traffi c control (ATC)- related incidents and accidents in the United Kingdom, but it seems reasonable to assume that the points raised have a general application extending beyond the ATC area or any one particular state.
