As well as being a legal requirement, reporting to CAA improves aviation safety and helps keep people safe.
Information from reports helps CAA and the aviation sector reduce aviation risks and enhance safety, for anyone in the skies and on the ground.
Because this data is so important, CAA has updated its forms and processes to make the process easier.
Legal obligations and advice on reporting accidents and incidents are outlined in:
Part 1, Definitions, distinguishes between:
Any event involving serious injury, death, or significant aircraft damage.
Any incident involving circumstances indicating that an accident nearly occurred.
Any occurrence, other than an accident, that is associated with the operation of an aircraft and affects or could affect the safety of operation.
What is an accident or incident?
Quick guide: occurrences - responsibilities and time frames for the most common occurrences.
While reporting of these is not mandatory, this information is still useful to CAA.
You can find out more at the section below: What about aviation related concerns?
Report these to CAA as soon as practicable by:
Report an occurrence(external link)
Information about other incidents is also useful to CAA.
Report an incident(external link)
For more advice, refer to Advisory Circular AC12-1 - Mandatory occurrence notification and information.
In most cases, pilots-in-command are responsible for reporting accidents. However, any aviation participant - that is, a licence or certificate holder, or anyone who works for an aviation operation - can report an accident, serious incident or incident.
Aviation related concerns can be reported by anyone.
Aviation participants who are in charge of a business or undertaking (that is, who are a PCBU(external link) in terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA)) also have reporting obligations under HSWA:
Notifiable event actions infographic [PDF 198 KB]
Information from accidents and incidents helps CAA to:
Participants can also use data to improve aviation safety and find out more about their part of the aviation sector. CAA’s Safety Reports pages include the Occurrence and Activity Dashboard.
This has data about accident and incident rates in different areas of the aviation sector, for example by type of incident, region, type of aviation activity.
Anyone can drill down into the detail, to find out about aviation risks that might affect their operation.
We understand the importance of privacy. All information provided is handled with the strictest confidence and protected by the provisions of the Civil Aviation Act 1990, as well as rule 12.61 and rule 12.153.
Report an accident, incident or occurrence(external link)
Concerns about aviation safety do not always involve accidents, serious incidents or incidents.
Information about any aviation issues or potentially unsafe situations can also help CAA build a picture of trends and risks to safety.
If you have an aviation related concern, you can report this here:
