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75 J. Air L. & Com. 223 (2010)
Independence of Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities: Keeping the Foxes from the Henhouse

handle is hein.journals/jalc75 and id is 227 raw text is: INDEPENDENCE OF AVIATION SAFETY INVESTIGATION AUTHORITIES: KEEPING THE FOXES FROM THE HENHOUSE* PAUL STEPHEN DEMPSEY ABSTRACT I. A MONG THE MOST important means of improving safety is to objectively determine the causes of aviation accidents so that appropriate action can be taken to prevent similar events from recurring in the future. The determination of causation can have an adverse political, economic, punitive, and reputa- tional effect upon individuals, airlines, manufacturers, air navi- gation service providers, airports, maintenance companies, and governmental institutions. Hence, many institutions and indi- viduals are motivated to try to influence the outcome of the investigation. Article 26 of the Chicago Convention requires a State in which an aviation accident occurs (involving death or serious injury, or involving a serious technical defect in the aircraft or air navigation facilities) to investigate the event. The Chicago Convention obliges the 190 ratifying States to implement the * This study parallels a similar evaluation by the McGill University Centre for Research on Air & Space Law and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on governance structures of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), of which this author was the principal investigator: McGill University/ICAO, Air Navigation: Fying Through Congested Skies (Paul Dempsey, ed., McGill/ICAO 2007). That study focused on governance structures of ANSPs in ten States. See http://www.mcgill.ca/files/iasl/CongestedSkies.pdf. ** Tomlinson Professor of Global Governance in Air & Space Law, and Director of the Institute of Air & Space Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. From 1979 to 2002, Dr. Dempsey was Professor of Law & Director of the Transportation Law Program, University of Denver College of Law, Denver, Colorado. A.B.J. (1972), J.D. (1975), University of Georgia; LL.M. (1978), George Washington University; D.C.L. (1986), McGill University. Admitted to the practice of law in Colorado, Georgia, and the District of Columbia. 223

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