What are accidents and incidents?

The AAUI(Be) basically investigates all accidents and serious incidents that have occurred in Belgium involving a civil aircraft, both manned and unmanned (drones). But what exactly is covered by accidents and serious incidents? 

Conditions  

First and foremost, the incident must take place between the time the aircraft is ready to move with the purpose of a flight until such time it comes to rest at the end of the flight. 

• An accident always involves fatal or serious injury or significant property damage where performance of the aircraft is impaired. 
• A serious incident is an occurrence where an accident was narrowly avoided. As a guideline, we note that this usually does not involve police or emergency services. Some examples are given at the bottom of this page. 

So there must be (an intention of) a flight. An incident during, for example, maintenance is not considered an aviation accident and you should not report it to the AAIU. However, you must report this and all other occurrences through the European reporting portal. 

If in doubt, we ask you to inform us anyway. 

Some possible examples of serious incidents: 

• a near collision requiring an avoidance maneuver 
• a narrowly avoided controlled flight into terrain 
• a temporary loss of control in flight (unwanted stall) 
• take-off or landing incidents 
• ... 

Full definitions can be found in the ACCID-01 circular and regulations.