which have occurred in the territories of the Member States to which the Treaties apply, in accordance with the international obligations of the Member States;

involving aircraft registered in a Member State or operated by an undertaking established in a Member State, which have occurred outside the territories of the Member States to which the Treaties apply, when such investigations are not conducted by another State;

in which a Member State is entitled, according to international standards and recommended practices, to appoint an accredited representative to participate as a State of Registry, State of the Operator, State of Design, State of Manufacture or State providing information, facilities or experts at the request of the State conducting the investigation;

in which a Member State having a special interest by virtue of fatalities or serious injuries to its citizens is permitted by the State conducting the investigation to appoint an expert.

the head of the safety investigation authority and/or, in the case of a multimodal authority, the head of its aviation branch shall have the experience and competence in civil aviation safety to fulfil his or her tasks in accordance with this Regulation and national law;

the investigators shall be afforded status giving them the necessary guarantees of independence;

the safety investigation authority shall comprise at least one available investigator able to perform the function of the investigator-in-charge in the event of a major air accident;

the safety investigation authority shall be allocated a budget that enables it to carry out its functions;

the safety investigation authority shall have at its disposal, either directly or by means of the cooperation referred to in Article 6, or through arrangements with other national authorities or entities, qualified personnel and adequate facilities, including offices and hangars to enable the storage and examination of the aircraft, its contents and its wreckage.

preparing suggestions to and advising Union institutions on all aspects of development and implementation of Union policies and rules relating to safety investigations and the prevention of accidents and incidents;

promoting the sharing of information useful for the improvement of aviation safety and actively promoting structured cooperation between safety investigation authorities, the Commission, EASA and national civil aviation authorities;

coordinating and organising, where appropriate, ‘peer reviews’, relevant training activities and skills development programmes for investigators;

promoting best safety investigation practices with a view to developing a common Union safety investigation methodology and drawing up an inventory of such practices;

strengthening the investigating capacities of the safety investigation authorities, in particular by developing and managing a framework for sharing resources;

providing, at the request of the safety investigation authorities for the purpose of the application of Article 6, appropriate assistance, including, but not limited to, a list of investigators, equipment and capabilities available in other Member States for potential use by the authority conducting an investigation;

having access to information contained in the database referred to in Article 18, and analyse the safety recommendations therein with a view to identifying important safety recommendations of Union-wide relevance.

as an adviser to the investigator-in-charge in any safety investigation under Article 5(1) and (2), conducted in the territory of a Member State or in the location referred to in Article 5(2) under the control and at the discretion of the investigator-in-charge;

as an adviser appointed under this Regulation to assist accredited representative(s) of the Member States in any safety investigation conducted in a third country to which a safety investigation authority is invited to designate an accredited representative in accordance with international standards and recommended practices for aircraft accident and incident investigation, under the supervision of the accredited representative.

visit the scene of the accident and examine the wreckage;

suggest areas of questioning and obtain witness information;

receive copies of all pertinent documents and obtain relevant factual information;

participate in the read-outs of recorded media, except cockpit voice or image recorders;

participate in off-scene investigative activities such as component examinations, tests and simulations, technical briefings and investigation progress meetings, except when related to the determination of the causes or the formulation of safety recommendations.

have immediate unrestricted and unhampered access to the site of the accident or incident as well as to the aircraft, its contents or its wreckage;

ensure an immediate listing of evidence and controlled removal of debris, or components for examination or analysis purposes;

have immediate access to and control over the flight recorders, their contents and any other relevant recordings;

request, and contribute to, a complete autopsy examination of the bodies of the fatally injured persons and to have immediate access to the results of such examinations or of tests made on samples taken;

request the medical examination of the people involved in the operation of the aircraft or request tests to be carried out on samples taken from such people and to have immediate access to the results of such examinations or tests;

to call and examine witnesses and to require them to furnish or produce information or evidence relevant to the safety investigation;

have free access to any relevant information or records held by the owner, the certificate holder of the type design, the responsible maintenance organisation, the training organisation, the operator or the manufacturer of the aircraft, the authorities responsible for civil aviation, EASA and air navigation service providers or aerodrome operators.

all statements taken from persons by the safety investigation authority in the course of the safety investigation;

records revealing the identity of persons who have given evidence in the context of the safety investigation;

information collected by the safety investigation authority which is of a particularly sensitive and personal nature, including information concerning the health of individuals;

material subsequently produced during the course of the investigation such as notes, drafts, opinions written by the investigators, opinions expressed in the analysis of information, including flight recorder information;

information and evidence provided by investigators from other Member States or third countries in accordance with the international standards and recommended practices, where so requested by their safety investigation authority;

drafts of preliminary or final reports or interim statements;

cockpit voice and image recordings and their transcripts, as well as voice recordings inside air traffic control units, ensuring also that information not relevant to the safety investigation, particularly information with a bearing on personal privacy, shall be appropriately protected, without prejudice to paragraph 3.

all communications between persons having been involved in the operation of the aircraft;

written or electronic recordings and transcriptions of recordings from air traffic control units, including reports and results made for internal purposes;

covering letters for the transmission of safety recommendations from the safety investigation authority to the addressee, where so requested by the safety investigation authority issuing the recommendation;

occurrence reports filed under Directive 2003/42/EC.

safety investigation authorities and civil aviation authorities of the States concerned, and the ICAO, according to the international standards and recommended practices;

addressees of safety recommendations contained in the report;

Commission and EASA, except where the report is publicly available through electronic means, in which case the safety investigation authority shall only notify them accordingly.

as soon as possible, and at the latest within two hours of the notification of the occurrence of an accident to the aircraft, of a validated list, based on the best available information, of all the persons on board; and

immediately after the notification of the occurrence of an accident to the aircraft, of the list of the dangerous goods on board.

visit the scene of the accident;

have access to the relevant factual information, which is approved for public release by the safety investigation authority in charge, and information on the progress of the investigation;

receive a copy of the final report.