Ludick Consulting
Independent Aviation Safety & Accident Investigations
Ludick Consulting is an independent service provider assisting with aircraft accident or incident
investigations to assist the regulator, investigation boards, OEM’s, insurance companies, families of the
seriously injured or deceased and legal firms to strive to find out the true cause of such accidents or
incidents.
The nature of man’s differences in beliefs, culture, politics, resources, education and surroundings can
impact in the way in which we approach, report and investigate aircraft accidents and incidents.
The sole objective of the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident shall be the prevention of
accidents and incidents. Furthermore, it is not the purpose of these investigations activities to apportion
blame or liability (ICAO, 2010, Annex 13, Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation, p. 3-1).
When discussing independence in investigations, ICAO Annex 13 further requires that the accident
investigation authority shall have independence in the conduct of the investigation and have unrestricted
authority in its conduct which needs to be consistent with the provisions of ICAO Annex 13 (ICAO, 2010,
Annex 13, Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation, p. 5-2).
Independence has been found to be welcomed by most stakeholders, yet the legal framework and
political will remains the main reasons for not everyone having independent investigation boards.
Additionally, the current regulator in most African based ICAO-member states is the funding arm of the
investigation departments/boards giving rise to a conflict of interest.