Sectors

Aviation



In the aviation sector, there is a legal requirement to investigate accidents and serious incidents that involve civilian aircraft. The Dutch Safety Board investigates these incidents on behalf of the Dutch government. In addition, the Board’s Defence sector investigates incidents involving military aircraft.

The Board will launch an investigation into an incident if it involves:

  • an aircraft located on or above Dutch territory including its territorial waters,
  • a Dutch aircraft above the open seas or
  • a Dutch aircraft located abroad, if:
    • the country involved is not investigating it, or
    • this country delegates the investigation to the Dutch authorities, or
    • the territory within which the incident occurred cannot be established, and the country that is to carry out the investigation cannot be agreed on.

The investigation will be performed by the Board’s own in-house investigators, who will be assisted where necessary by external specialists.

Reporting an incident

If you want to report an incident to which you were a witness, please call 0800 MELDOVV or 0800-6353688.

A serious incident or an accident must be reported as soon as possible by phone by:

  • the captain of the aircraft,
  • the operator of the aircraft,
  • the air traffic control service concerned, and by
  • the airport operations manager concerned.

In addition to further guidelines on reporting serious incidents and accidents involving civil aviation, the Aeronautical Information Circulars, Series B 02/10 contains definitions for the terms ‘a serious incident’ and ‘an accident’. After the initial notification by phone, you can give us further details by submitting a digital notification form.

Notification forms

Current short investigations

Completed investigations

Links