Singapore seminar says there should be more collaboration in air accident investigation
29 Aug 2007
The 38th annual seminar of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators started in Singapore on Tuesday 28 August, and called for more cooperation in air accident investigations.
Singapore's Minister for Transport Raymond Lim said it is important for governments and industry players to collaborate more closely in sharing technical expertise, equipment, facilities and training platforms, for better accident investigation.
Collaboration can help when individual countries' investigation bodies encounter problems as a result of the complexity of aircraft and air transport systems.
The insights gained from accidents and near-misses could help prevent similar incidents in the future, he said. The stakeholders should openly and professionally share ideas, experiences and lessons learnt from accident investigations. This is vital for upgrading safety standards in the aviation industry, he said.
Singapore has recently set up an air accident investigation bureau to analyse data from black boxes installed on passenger planes. Over the next five years, passenger volumes in Asia will grow at grow 7.9 per cent annually.
An average global growth rate of 4 per cent over the next 20 years will mean doubling the present passenger load to some 9 billion passengers a year.