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The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the UK, its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It has its origins in the Accidents Investigation Branch of the Royal Flying Corps, founded in 1915, and is now an independent unit within the Department for Transport. The Chief Inspector of Air Accidents reports directly to the Secretary of State for Transport on air safety matters.

The work of the AAIB includes:

• responding quickly to air accidents and serious incidents

• conducting thorough, independent, impartial and timely investigations into air accidents and serious incidents

• producing reports that explain the circumstances and causes of accidents and serious incidents, without attributing blame

• providing assistance and expertise to international air accident investigations and organisations

• improving aviation safety in general through education and sharing the lessons learnt from accident investigations

• treating the survivors and relatives of air accident victims sympathetically, helping them understand what happened and what’s being done to prevent future accidents

To carry out this work there are six teams, each led by a principal inspector. The teams are made up of operations inspectors, engineering inspectors, flight data recorder inspectors and a human factors inspector.

Our speaker, a senior member of the AAIB, will speak about the work of the AAIB and how the AAIB goes about that work. He will support his presentation with case studies.

Our speaker, Mark Ellis, is a Mechanical Engineering graduate of the University of Portsmouth and became a CEng MIMechE in 2002. After undertaking wing systems installation design and support at Airbus Filton and Airbus Toulouse on the A380, followed by design support at GKN and then Chief Engineering at Airbus Filton on the A320, he is now a Senior Engineering Inspector at the AAIB, having joined in 2017.