While on the subject of audits it is worth remembering that before the 2008 FAA/ICAO Audit the bureau asked for and got audited by ICAO on pretty much similar ToR to that of the TSBC peer review:
Media release
Title
Positive results of ICAO audit of the ATSB
Date: 29 October 2004
An ICAO audit of the ATSB has reported high satisfaction with Australia's legislative, organisational and training framework for aircraft safety investigation and the professional and efficient conduct of the ATSB investigations reviewed in detail.
The audit by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was sought by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to ensure that the ATSB met international best practice for aviation accident and incident safety investigation.
The ICAO audit team 'commended the positive and professional approach of the ATSB in proactively seeking the audit' and made a number of very positive findings.
For example, the team 'was highly satisfied with the legislative and organizational framework established by Australia and the ATSB enabling the conduct of aircraft accident and incident investigations' in particular through the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 and Regulations.
The ICAO team 'commended' the ATSB's 'very comprehensive training policy and programme' and, based on the two complex accident investigations audited, found: 'despite multiple difficult circumstances in each of the investigations reviewed, the investigators appeared to have managed the investigation tasks in a professional and efficient manner, consistent with the established standards and practices of the ATSB. Furthermore & safety issues were properly addressed and the processing of reports of the investigations was generally accomplished in a timely manner'.
As expected, the audit team did make a number of recommendations for improvement including regarding documentation, memoranda of understanding, post-accident medical testing, budgeting and number of investigations, investigator training, and occurrence reporting, against which the ATSB has submitted a corrective action plan.
These recommendations are being progressed with the Minister and internally. In transmitting the audit report, ICAO stated that it was 'pleased to advise that your (the ATSB's) proposed corrective action plan was found to be fully acceptable'.
The field stage of the ICAO audit was conducted in May/June 2004 and the final audit report was transmitted this month. In the interests of transparency, the full ICAO audit report is available from the
website, or from the Bureau on request.
A decade on and a lot of water under the bridge - which included significant events like the Lockhart River tragedy and the attempted cover-up of the VH-NGA Norfolk Island ditching investigation - did the bureau heed the lessons learnt from the ICAO audit or are the bureau diverging further from compliance with their obligations to ICAO Annex 13??
My money is on the latter and after the PelAir debacle for very good reason...
The following is a prime example of how the bureau has IMO regressed rather than improved over the course of the last decade. First an extract from the bureau link above...
"...Safety recommendations are issued by the ATSB in conformity with Annex 13 requirements..."
Then this quote from Ben's article yesterday -
Boeing unwilling to comment on 777 security issues:
One of the protocols of air accident investigations that conform to the prescriptions and intent of ICAO Annex 13 (covering air safety inquiries) is that if a safety issue is identified in the course of an investigation then it is dealt with expeditiously rather than kept on ice pending the publication of a final report.
Which brings an interesting parallel to the PelAir investigation...
As we now all know there was a critical safety issue identified very early on in the PelAir ATsB investigation - which in normal compliance with Annex 13 should have meant the automatic promulgation of an SR. Instead the bureau sat on this safety issue for a further 3 years and the SI is still yet to be adequately addressed...
The following vid - from 26 May Senate Estimates - perhaps further highlights this contradiction by the bureau (since 2004) in application of Annex 13 on the subject of safety issues and what Senator Fawcett refers to as 'closing the safety (issue) loop' i.e. mitigating safety risk.
It is also interesting to note that apparently the ATsB provided a copy of their actions in response to the 2008 FAA/ICAO audit to the TSBC - see QON 258 answered
here by Beaker - yet they didn't furnish the Canucks with the
2004 exclusive ICAO audit of the bureau...
MTF...
