Plane crashes are investigated by an independent safety body in the country where the accident happened. In the United States that is the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in France the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA), in the United Kingdom the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), in Canada the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) and in Australia the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Other countries involved with the aircraft take part, under rules every member of the International Civil Aviation Organization has agreed to.
The rule: the country where it happened leads
The international rules for accident investigation are set out in Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention, maintained by ICAO. Under Annex 13, the State of Occurrence, the country where the accident happened, must open an investigation and is responsible for conducting it.
Four other countries can each appoint an accredited representative to take part:
- the State of Registry, where the aircraft is registered,
- the State of the Operator, where the airline has its main place of business,
- the State of Design, which has jurisdiction over the company responsible for the type design,
- the State of Manufacture, which has jurisdiction over the company that assembled the aircraft.
A country with a special interest, for example because many of its citizens were on board, can appoint an expert. The State of Occurrence can also delegate all or part of the investigation to another country.
That is why a crash of a Boeing almost anywhere in the world involves the NTSB, and a crash of an Airbus involves the BEA, even when neither leads.
United States: NTSB, and why the FAA is not the investigator
The NTSB investigates civil aviation accidents in the United States, as well as major accidents on the railways, highways, waterways and pipelines. Congress created it in 1967 as an independent agency inside the Department of Transportation. In 1974 it was re-established as a separate body outside the department. The NTSB’s own history explains why: its investigations and recommendations have to be independent of the department that runs and regulates transport.
The difference between the FAA and the NTSB is the difference between a regulator and an investigator. The Federal Aviation Administration writes and enforces the rules, certifies aircraft and pilots, and runs air traffic control. The NTSB investigates when something goes wrong, determines the probable cause and makes safety recommendations, many of them to the FAA. The FAA is often a party to an NTSB investigation, because its rules, its oversight or its controllers may be part of the story. The NTSB also hears appeals against FAA enforcement action on pilots’ certificates.
The NTSB says its party system lets it investigate about 1,200 aviation accidents and incidents a year. TWA Flight 800, the Boeing 747 that exploded off Long Island in 1996, is one of its best-known investigations. See TWA Flight 800: The 747 Fuel Tank Explosion Off Long Island.
France: BEA
The Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile is France’s civil aviation safety investigation authority, based at Le Bourget near Paris. Its stated purpose is the improvement of aviation safety. It runs its investigations independently and cannot seek or receive instructions on how to run them. Its investigations are separate from any court or administrative action that seeks to establish fault.
Because Airbus aircraft are designed and assembled in France, the BEA takes part in investigations around the world as the State of Design and Manufacture. It joined the NTSB’s investigation of American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, in New York in 2001. Its laboratory also reads out recorders for other countries.
United Kingdom: AAIB
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is an independent unit within the Department for Transport. It investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents in the UK, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. Its reports explain the circumstances and causes, without attributing blame.
The AAIB investigated Pan Am Flight 103, the Boeing 747 destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. Its Aircraft Accident Report 2/90 established that an improvised explosive device in the forward cargo hold caused the break-up, while the police led the criminal investigation.
Canada: TSB
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is an independent agency created by Act of Parliament on 29 March 1990. It investigates air, marine, pipeline and rail occurrences. It says it is not its function to assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability, though it reports fully on causes and contributing factors even where fault might be inferred, and its findings are not binding on the parties to any legal or disciplinary proceedings.
The TSB led the investigation of Swissair Flight 111, the MD-11 that crashed into the sea off Nova Scotia in 1998 after a fire above the cockpit. It took four and a half years, and the TSB recovered and examined 98 percent of the aircraft by weight.
Accidents in Canada before 1990 were investigated by other bodies. The Gimli Glider of 1983 was examined by a Board of Inquiry appointed by the government.
Australia: ATSB
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is Australia’s independent transport safety investigator, set up under the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003. It investigates aviation, marine and rail occurrences, and like the other bodies here its investigations are no-blame: they are not meant to apportion blame or support legal action.
None of the events on this site so far happened in Australia.
Others that appear on this site
Many of the accidents on this site were investigated by other national bodies.
- Spain: CIAIAC. The Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviación Civil investigates civil aviation accidents in Spain, under the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. The Tenerife airport disaster of 1977 was investigated by Spain’s Subsecretaría de Aviación Civil, with Dutch and American participation.
- Portugal: GPIAA, now GPIAAF. Portugal’s investigation office led the inquiry into Air Transat Flight 236, the Canadian A330 that glided to the Azores in 2001, with Canada’s TSB taking part. It has since become the GPIAAF, covering both aviation and rail.
- Greece: AAIASB, now succeeded. The Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board investigated Helios Airways Flight 522 in 2005. Greece abolished it by Law 5014/2023, and its work continues under a new authority, known by its Greek initials ΕΟΔΑΣΑΑΜ. The AAIASB’s website remains online as an archive of its reports.
- Papua New Guinea: AIC. The Accident Investigation Commission describes itself as independent, no-blame and unbiased. It investigated Air Niugini Flight 73, which came down in Chuuk Lagoon in 2018. The accident happened in the Federated States of Micronesia, which delegated the investigation to Papua New Guinea, where the airline is based. The NTSB took part as the representative of the State of Manufacture of the Boeing 737.
- India: AAIB. India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation set up the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on 30 July 2012. It investigated the serious incident on Jet Airways Flight 555 in 2015, when a Boeing 737-800 made seven approaches in poor visibility at Cochin and Trivandrum and landed with very little fuel left.
When a country asks for help
Not every country has its own laboratory or a large team. Annex 13 lets a country delegate an investigation, and smaller investigators often ask larger ones for help with specialist work.
After Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed near Athens in 2005, both flight recorders were read out at the BEA’s facilities in France for the Greek investigators. The Air Niugini 73 investigation shows delegation in full: the country where the accident happened handed the whole investigation to the airline’s home state.
Help also flows to the investigator in charge from manufacturers and airlines, through the accredited representatives and the advisers they bring. Our guide How Plane Crash Investigations Work explains how those roles fit together.
Where to find each body’s reports
| Body | Country | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| NTSB | United States | CAROL search |
| BEA | France | Safety investigations |
| AAIB | United Kingdom | AAIB reports |
| TSB | Canada | Air transportation reports |
| ATSB | Australia | atsb.gov.au |
| CIAIAC | Spain | CIAIAC |
| GPIAAF | Portugal | GPIAAF |
| AAIASB (archive) | Greece | Investigation reports |
| AIC | Papua New Guinea | Final reports |
| AAIB | India | AAIB India |
For how to read a report once you have found it, see How to Read an Air Accident Final Report.
Watch in the library
- US Airways Flight 1549: The Bird Strike and the NTSB’s Findings
- Germanwings Flight 9525: The Locked Cockpit and the BEA Findings
- Pan Am Flight 103: How Investigators Proved a Bomb Over Lockerbie
- Air Canada Flight 143: Gimli Glider Landing and the Inquiry
Sources
- ICAO Annex 13 provisions, Uniting Aviation (ICAO), 30 August 2021.
- NTSB, History; NTSB, The Investigative Process.
- BEA, Our mission.
- AAIB (UK), About us.
- TSB Canada, About the TSB.
- ATSB, About the ATSB (from ATSB pages in search results; not loaded directly).
- CIAIAC, GPIAAF, AAIASB, PNG AIC and AAIB India home pages.
- AIC Final Report AIC 18-1004 (Air Niugini 73); AAIASB report 11/2006 (Helios 522); NTSB/AAR-04/04 (American 587); FAA Lessons Learned (Tenerife).