AirSafe.com

Post Accident Information Checklist

Using a combination of Web based information from official sources such as government agencies and other sources such as large news organizations can give a Web user a very detailed picture of the events and circumstances surrounding a major accident and begin to answer questions such as "What happened?", "Where did it happen?", "Who is involved?", and "What is being done about it?".

Using the Web to gather information immediately after an accident has two distinct advantages: direct access to a variety of relevant background information and access to a wide range news media sources. Depending on the accident, the background resources could include the incident and accident record of a particular aircraft, airline, or airport; detailed weather conditions at the time of the accident, or past fines or other sanctions imposed on the accident airline. Currently, most of the world's major news organizations such as CNN, the BBC, and the New York Times have a presence on the Web, and many local television, radio, and newspaper outlets also have Web sites. While this information in no way substitutes for a detailed analysis of an accident by trained investigators and analysts, it can be substantially better than what is currently offered by most news organizations in the wake of an accident. The following kinds of information can be accessed quickly after an accident

Accident Details
Immediately after an accident, there may be one or more news sites with details of the circumstances of the accident. For an accident in any part of the world, CNN (cnn.com) is a good starting point. If the accident is in the U.S., involves a U.S. carrier, or has substantial numbers of Americans on board, other useful sites include:
USA Today (www.usatoday.com),
The New York Times (nytimes.com),
MSNBC (msnbc.com),
ABC News (www.abcnews.go.com ),
CBS News (www.cbs.com), and
Fox News (foxnews.com).

All of these sites offer immediate details about the accident such as the airline, aircraft, number of passengers and crew, casualty estimates, weather conditions, and damage or casualties outside of the aircraft. The Web sites of newspapers or television stations in the vicinity of an accident may also have information that is not available on the larger media sites. One way to locate these sites is to use one or more search engines to identify the newspaper, radio, or television station Web sites from the area of the accident.

The Web sites of major news outlets can provide little useful insights beyond these basic pieces of information. In the hours after the accident, there is simply not enough time for anyone to have been able to know all the relevant details of an accident. Even a photograph or a video from the accident sequence is not enough to allow a full understanding of the accident. If any of these news outlets offer any speculation about the cause of the accident or the sequence of events leading up to the accident, that speculation is at best preliminary and quite possibly wrong. Most of the details of an accident are not known until investigators have had time to review any available information such as evidence from the accident aircraft or eyewitnesses.

If the accident was in the U.S. or involved an aircraft registered in the U.S., the FAA would be able to provide additional details about the aircraft and the event the first working day after the accident. The FAA provides preliminary information on the last ten days of accidents and incidents at www.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm. This source provides basic data such as the number of occupants, the number of deaths, the number and severity of injuries, aircraft registration number, and a brief description of the accident or incident. The data from this site can be used to search U.S. government databases for past events involving the same aircraft model, the particular aircraft, or the same airport.

Weather
If weather may have been a factor, review the following:

• Accuweather at www.accuweather.com for local weather conditions at the time of the event,

• The National Center for Atmospheric Research at www.ncar.ucar.edu,

• The Weather Channel at www.weather.com for current conditions in selected cities throughout the world, The USA Today at www.usatoday.com/weather/, and

• The Weather Underground at www.wunderground.com.

Additional weather links are available on the AirSafe.com Passenger Information and Advice page at http://www.airsafe.com/paxinfo.htm

Historical Data
Immediately after an accident, the relevant news media sites can be checked for details of the accident and those details can be used to compile the previous history of accidents and incidents involving the aircraft, airline, and depending on the circumstances the airport. If an accident is in the U.S., the first two places to look are the NTSB database and the FAA incident database. Links to these and similar sites can be found at http://www.airsafe.com/analyze/usinfo.htm

The combination of the NTSB and FAA databases would provide a comprehensive history of the record of U.S. airlines or of aircraft registered in the U.S. for accidents and incidents since 1983. More general information about U.S. air carrier operations can be found in annual report FAA Statistical Handbook of Aviation. This report covers a broad array of U.S. aviation information and includes data on the FAA, capacity and activity in the U.S. airspace system, airports, airport activity, civil air carriers, the civil air carrier fleet. The online version of the report is available at a Bureau of Transportation Statistics site at www.bts.gov/NTL/DOCS/zfaasha.html.

In addition to the records in the NTSB and FAA databases, you can also use the registration number to find out about the owner of an aircraft involved in an incident or accident. There are two options, one is to download the database of the FAA Civil Aviation Registry and search it using a spreadsheet or database program. A more convenient option is to use the registration database in the Landings Web site at www.landings.com. Once you know the registered owner, you can return to the NTSB and FAA search forms to find out if that owner had been involved in other accidents or incidents.

Although these database offer a convenient way to access critical information, keep in mind that they do not represent the official record for an aircraft. If you need something more authoritative, contact the FAA, NTSB, or another relevant authority.

For accidents involving aircraft that are not registered in the U.S. or airlines that are based outside of the U.S., there are fewer options to gather information online. The governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom all have some accident and incident records online. The AirSafe.com Links Page has links to many of these sites.

Related Details
Additional information about an accident or about the aircraft or airline involved in an accident may be found in news releases or official statements from the Web sites for the aircraft manufacturer, the airline, the investigating authority (for U.S. accidents this would be the NTSB at www.ntsb.gov), or the emergency services organizations in the jurisdiction where the event took place. The Web sites AirSafe.com at www.airsafe.com and Aviation Safety Network at aviation-safety.net traditionally have a short synopsis of the event and details about the aircraft or the airline.