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Aviation Accident Investigator

Interviews

Insider Info

Bill Yearwood gets a number of reports of incidents every day. They can be from air traffic controllers, police or pilots. He needs to decide what action to take. He is a regional manager of aviation investigations.

As a manager, he is also in charge of hiring and managing staff, dealing with the media and families affected by accidents, and making decisions to open investigations.

"I could get a call in the middle of the night that there's an accident. I must assess whether it's valuable to dispatch to the site right away," Yearwood says. When making these decisions, he asks himself, "Is this something that could affect the aviation system region-wide? Worldwide? Is there a message that needs to get out?"

A message that his team wants to get out includes changes that can be made to make the aviation system safer. "It doesn't have to be an accident for us to investigate it. If it could put people at risk, we could open a full investigation," says Yearwood. He says the job is interesting because every investigation is a new beginning.

"No two crashes pose the exact problems or circumstances," he says. The usual cycle of an investigation begins with a team sent out to the site to collect and secure the evidence. All the bits of information they collect help them discover and come up with new ideas about what might help an aircraft survive an accident.

The second step in the investigation cycle is to pass information on to survivors, relate information to next of kin and talk to the media.

"They want to find out why their loved one died. We need to give them something. And we're the only ones who can do it without bias," Yearwood says.

Operators, manufacturers, regulators and pilots don't want to show weakness or admit fault. Investigators are only interested in the facts.

The third step is to conduct further scientific investigations to determine the likely cause of the accident. Investigators can draw from a wide variety of specialists with the NTSB.

If a specialist is not available, which could happen in something like the case of an air balloon accident, they look outside to hire an expert consultant.

After the investigation, a report is written. The facts must back up the analysis and conclusions. The final step is to get the word out and ask for changes to improve safety.

George Carney is part of a two-person team that investigates all British army air accidents throughout the world. That includes accidents that happen during operations and aircraft brought down by enemy action. He is on call 24 hours every day of the year. He has 60 minutes of notice to deploy to a crash site.

"It is important to get to the site as quickly as possible so that evidence is not destroyed or degraded by factors such as weather or deteriorating security situations," he says.

At the crash site he takes photographs, interviews witnesses and takes oil and fuel samples from the aircraft. It usually takes three days to collect evidence, examine the wreckage and surroundings, and decide how the aircraft crashed.

Why it crashed needs further investigation. This is done at a base location. It includes technical examination of the wreckage. When all possible evidence is gathered and enough information available, Carney finds the reason for the accident.

"Although it doesn't always happen as quickly as I would like, getting that 'eureka' moment when I have worked out how the accident happened always gives me a huge boost," he says.

When not reacting to accident call-outs, Carney tries to prevent accidents. He gives presentations to update engineers and pilots on previous accidents and lessons that need to be learned from them.

"The work I carry out and the recommendations I make help to prevent future accidents and therefore assist in saving lives. This is personally very rewarding though rarely recognized."