The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) published a record 31 reports on serious incidents and accidents in 2008. Investigations into these accidents and serious incidents are initiated by Mandatory Occurrence Reports that are submitted to The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA). The IAA recorded 5,500 Mandatory Occurrence Reports last year and passed over reports which warranted further investigation to the AAIU, a division of the Department of Transport. The AAIU then carried out further investigations into 94 events of these events. While a significant portion of events are classified as ‘occurrences’ signifying a relatively minor event, 15 were classified as ‘accidents’, and a further 9 were classified as ‘serious incidents’.

2008 was a quieter year for the AAIU than 2007; 107 events were investigated from the staggering 7,000 Mandatory Occurrence Reports received by the IAA. However, 21 accidents were reported in 2008, two more than in 2007. Of these, 15 were investigated by the AAIU as home investigations with a further 6 occurring abroad. One of the most serious events of last year occurred when a UK registered Cherokee Archer aircraft crashed near the summit of Corriebrack Mountain, Co Wicklow on October 25th, killing the pilot and three passengers. A full investigation into the incident is ongoing. Several other reports stand out from the 31 published in 2008:

- In January, a flight from Toronto to London Heathrow was forced to divert to Shannon airport when the First Officer became incapacitated mid-flight. In this serious incident the Commander of the plane commented that the First Officer had become ‘belligerent and uncooperative’ and was subsequently removed from the cockpit for medical attention. The flight landed as normal with no injury to any of the 146 passengers.
- In August the AAIU published the final report on a serious incident that took place in November 2007 when an air traffic controller was forced to be creative when guiding a private plane that had lost all electrical power. Having attempted to contact the pilot by mobile phone, the ATC resorted to texting the pilot landing instructions. The plane subsequently landed safely at Cork airport.
- In September the AAIU published the final report regarding an incident that took place in September 2006. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin descended too rapidly into Chicago’s O’Hare airport and was forced to begin climbing again. The aircraft landed as normal and no injuries were reported.

However, the overwhelming majority of flights occur without incident. The IAA reports that over 317,000 take-offs and landings took place at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports combined in 2008. Given the global downturn, 2009 is expected to be a difficult year in the aviation sector. The IAA recently reported commercial air traffic movements were down in December 2008 on the previous year by 0%, – 9.4% and -4.3% at Dublin, Shannon and Cork respectively.

(photo Getty/AFP)