HK Air Accident Investigation Authority

[CISTRS]

Apologies to the local PPRuNers for aviation and regulatory content...

I see in today's press, that the HK Government has appointed a Chief Inspector for the AAIA, independent of HK CAD.
The responsible Government Department is Transport and Housing Bureau (Transport Branch).

ICAO recommends:
Such agencies must be wholly independent of the regulatory entities and aviation service providers so as to be able to examine the possibility of shortcomings in State Safety Regulations or State Safety Programmes (https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/State_Safety_Programme). An example of such an agency which covers only aviation is the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/AAIB)(AAIB) and an example of a multimodal agency which includes aviation investigation is the National Transportation Safety Board (https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/NTSB) (NTSB) in the USA.

Any comments?

[Daysleeper]

The ICAO recommendation referred to became a standard in 2016. A lot of places are now on the path to separating their accident investigation bodies from regulators. HK is just the latest to go 'live'.

[mr did]

HKCAD has operated with impunity for decades so with some level of supervision and punishment now about to be hanging over their heads, you would hope for a more "engaged" department.

There is no shortage of paperwork warning of potential accident causing issues: fatigue, maintenance, actual compliance with rules, etc, etc. Hopefully an actual accident investigation wont be required to get them off their asses to start doing a bit of oversight. It's long overdue.