TCAS RA, a Fractured Wrist and a Wing Dent: Classifying and Reporting the Occurrence
An ATR 72-600 on a scheduled night flight is descending into a regional Indian airport in forecast turbulence when TCAS commands 'CLIMB'. The crew follows the RA; separation with the opposite traffic is later estimated at 300 ft vertically and 1.2 NM laterally. During the manoeuvre a cabin crew member securing the galley is thrown against a galley latch and sustains a fractured wrist; she is admitted to hospital for 36 hours. After landing, a 30 cm dent is found on the leading edge of the right wing, assessed by maintenance as repairable within the day. The operator wants to (a) fly the aircraft back to base that night after the repair, (b) leave the FDR and CVR running on subsequent flights because downloading is expensive, and (c) handle the matter internally since 'nobody died and the aircraft is fine'. The captain filed an occurrence report to DGCA the next morning.
1. Classify the occurrence(s) under Annex 13 and the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules 2017.
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There are three distinct occurrences here and they do not all fall in the same category.
- The fractured wrist is an accident. Annex 13 defines an accident as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft between boarding and disembarkation in which a person is fatally or seriously injured, or the aircraft sustains damage or goes missing. 'Serious injury' expressly includes fracture of any bone, other than simple fractures of fingers, toes or nose. The injury was caused by being thrown against aircraft structure during the operation, so it is not excluded. An accident therefore exists even though the aircraft damage alone might not qualify.
- The TCAS RA with 300 ft separation is a serious incident. A near collision, an AIRPROX, or a TCAS resolution advisory with reduced separation is listed in the serious incident categories; it did not need to become an accident to be investigated as a serious incident.
- The wing dent must be assessed against the 'substantial damage' test - whether it adversely affects structural strength, performance or flight characteristics and would normally require major repair or replacement. A 30 cm leading-edge dent repairable in a day may well be substantial, and the assessment should be made by the investigation authority, not by the operator alone.
The controlling fact is the serious injury: this is an accident, and it is investigated as one.
2. Who must be notified, what must be preserved, and what may the operator not do?
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Notification. India, as State of Occurrence, must notify the accident promptly to the State of Registry, State of the Operator, State of Design and State of Manufacture, and to ICAO where applicable, and must institute the investigation. Domestically the occurrence goes to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau under the 2017 Rules, with the DGCA also informed; the operator has its own mandatory occurrence reporting obligations, and the commander has already reported.
Preservation. The CVR and FDR must be preserved and protected. The operator must not allow the CVR to be overwritten by subsequent flights, must not erase or re-record it, and must not remove or disturb aircraft components relevant to the investigation without the authority's agreement. The aircraft should not be flown back until the investigation authority has recorded the damage and released it. Records - flight documents, load sheets, crew duty records, the injured crew member's statement and medical records - must be secured.
What the operator may not do: treat this as an internal matter, run the aircraft to overwrite the recorders, or instruct the crew to give informal accounts. Silence is not an option either: failing to notify is itself a breach, separate from whatever caused the event. The 'nobody died' reasoning misunderstands the definition entirely.
3. What are the operator's and crew's obligations towards the injured crew member and the investigation's outcome?
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The injured crew member must receive medical care and the injury must be reported and recorded as an occupational injury in addition to the occurrence report. Her statement should be taken as evidence for the investigation, in a way that does not discourage her from giving a full account. Statements taken for the investigation should not be repurposed as disciplinary material, and CVR content should not be used for purposes other than the investigation.
Investigation posture. The operator must cooperate: appoint a point of contact, provide maintenance records and crew records, allow interviews, and respond to safety recommendations. The investigation is fact-finding, not a fault-finding exercise; the operator's own internal investigation should be run separately and should focus on why the crew were in a position to be caught by an RA in that airspace and why a cabin crew member was still securing the galley during a descent in forecast turbulence.
Reporting back. The operator should expect a preliminary report within about 30 days and the safety actions to be tracked to closure. Where the investigation identifies a systemic issue - the traffic pattern with the opposite aircraft, turbulence procedures, or the absence of a secured-cabin check before descent - the corrective action is the deliverable, not the paperwork.