University of New South Wales - UNSW

AVIA 5312 Airline Incident Investigation

To develop an advanced appreciation of the principles of investigation in aviation operations
To develop a range of practical skills for the investigation of safety incidents and accidents.

Airline Incident Investigation concerns the movement areas around an aerodrome and the investigation of incidents and accidents that occur within them. Ground damage represents a major cost to the aviation industry, yet safety measures have tended to focus mainly on aircraft safety in flight. This course covers the investigative process and issues specific to ground safety.

This includes principles of safety and human factors, managing the response to incidents and accidents, handling of witnesses, victims and media, legal requirements in investigation,sources of evidence, analysis techniques, reporting and proactive management.

NOTE: AVIA5312 & AVIA5313 will not both count towards your program. You are free to do both, but only the Units of Credit of one of the courses (i.e. 3 UoC) is permitted to count towards the award of your program.

Lecturer

Malcolm McGregor

Location

This course runs for six weeks.
It is delivered entirely in Distance Learning format and is therefore accessible from any location.

Assessment

Students are required to complete one written assignment on a topic which will be detailed in the Distance Learning manual. The assignments must be word-processed with all students expected to have a back-up copy on disk, to be made available to lecturer on request.

There is also a final examination with this course.

Required Texts

Course Study Materials which are distributed to students and available via WebCT Vista.

Recommended Texts

Alkov, R (1997) Aviation Safety - The Human Factor. Casper, WY : Endeavor Books, c1997.
Braithwaite, G (2001) Attitude or Latitude? - Australian Aviation Safety. Aldershot : Ashgate, 2001.
Faith, N (1996) Black Box : Why Air Safety Is No Accident . Boxtree Publications.
Hawkins, F (1993) Human Factors in Flight, 2nd edn. Aldershot, Hants, England : Ashgate, c1993.
Job, M (1994/6/8) Air Disaster (Vols. 1-3). Weston Creek, ACT : Aerospace Publications.
Krause, S (2003) Aircraft safety : accident investigations, analyses, and applications, 2nd edn. New York, N.Y. : McGraw-Hill, c2003.
Maurino, D., Reason, J., Johnston, N. & Lee, R (1995) Beyond aviation human factors : safety in high technology systems. Aldershot : Avebury Aviation, c1995.
Orlady, H (1999) Human Factors in Multi Crew Flight operations. Aldershot : Ashgate, c1999.
Reason, J (1993) Human Error. Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Reason, J (1997) Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents. Aldershot : Ashgate, c1997.
Taylor, L (1997) Air Travel: How Safe Is It?. Cambridge, Mass. : Blackwell Science.
Viner, Derek (1991) Accident analysis and risk control. Carlton South, Vic. : VRJ Delphi, 1991.
Walters, J (2000) Aircraft Accident Analysis : Final Reports. New York ; London : McGraw-Hill, c2000.
Wells, A (2003) Commercial Aviation Safety, 4th edn. New York : McGraw-Hill.
Wickens, C (1997) Flight to the future : human factors in air traffic control. Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, 1997.
Wood, R & Sweginnis, R (1995) Aircraft Accident Investigation. Casper, Wyo. : Endeavor Books, c1995.

The recommended texts are available for short term loan from the UNSW Library or for purchase from;

Learning Resources

The University of New South Wales provides a range of resources to help students develop their skills and to realise their full potential. The Learning Centre, located at the entrance to the Library provides guidance material, which is also available on-line.

In particular, students may wish to access the following:

Note-Taking Skills
The Basics of Essay Writing
Answering Assignment Questions
Report Writing FAQs
The Basics of Studying for Exams
Surviving Exams
Exam Skills
Plagiarism
The American Psychological Association (APA) Referencing System