Accident Investigators and Boards of Inquiry - Terms of Reference
Does anyone out there know what are the Terms of Reference (TORs) for military DAS/DARS Accident Investigators ?
For example, once they have investigated the local direct-efffect causes of the accident, are the investigators mandated to consider the organisational influences that may have predisposed those involved towards having the accident? How deep are the investigators allowed/required to go once they have been briefed by the AOC (therein lies a tale or two, I suspect)?
An example of 'organisational factors' could be squadron/fleet ethos or budget constraints impacting on crewing levels, manning policy, poor training opportunities, a lack of supervision, contradictory documentation or even inappropriate equipment or procedures etc. Whereas, the 'local factors' could be crew mishandling, incorrect procedures, lapses, errors, violations, inappropriate cockpit gradient, distractions or even poor awareness of enemy actions and int etc?
It would be interesting to know the current mil procedures, as it has taken years for aviation experts to get commerce (eg airlines), the govt and hence or the military to accept that such organisational influences could be important in major accidents (eg Chernobyl, Piper Alpha, Zeebrugge, Dryden etc). As a result of this, however, have the TORs actually been changed for accident investigators?
flipster