When a plane goes down, the world expects answers. Increasingly, it isn't getting them. IATA's safety director Mark Searle told the International Aviation Safety Summit in Montreal on November 12 that the publication rate for final accident reports has sat near 50% for years — a figure he called unacceptable.
The numbers back him up. A February 2025 position paper from IATA and six other aviation bodies found that of 268 accidents recorded by the association between 2018 and 2023, only 140 had completed investigations by June 30, 2024. The other 128 — 48% — had no published final report.
Under ICAO's Annex 13 rules, investigators should issue a preliminary report within 30 days and a final report ideally within 12 months, with interim statements on each anniversary if the case runs long. Two high-profile crashes show how often that timeline slips. The Air India Boeing 787 that crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in June 2025, killing 241 aboard and 19 on the ground, produced only an interim update on its first anniversary — with no date for a final report. China Eastern Flight MU5735, which went down in March 2022 with 132 aboard, still has no public final findings more than four years on. That vacuum leaves room for speculation, including unverified theories about deliberate action, that no one can confirm or rule out.
Why the delays? Flight Safety Foundation chief executive Hassan Shahidi told Reuters the most common cause is a shortage of investigators with the technical skills these complex inquiries demand. Add laboratory analysis, engineering work, coordination between countries, and sometimes politically sensitive criminal proceedings running in parallel, and timelines stretch. Safety investigations are meant to establish causes and prevent repeats — not assign blame — but they can get sidelined when criminal cases dominate.
The consequences reach beyond the families waiting for answers. Final reports drive changes to aircraft design, pilot training, maintenance procedures and regulations. Without them, airlines around the world can't check whether the same hazard lurks in their own operations. If you fly, the safety improvements that come from these reports are part of what keeps the system working: IATA's 2025 safety report counted just 51 accidents across 38.7 million flights — 1.32 per million sectors, down from 1.42 the year before. Aviation is statistically safer than ever, but that record is built on lessons learned from each accident. Skip the reports, and the learning stops.
IATA is pushing for better-funded investigative agencies, more specialist expertise, and international support for countries that lack capacity. Until then, roughly every second crash leaves the industry — and the flying public — without the full story.
