ICAO’s international standard setting out how civil aviation accidents and incidents are investigated, with the sole aim of preventing future ones.
What it is
It is one of the annexes to the Chicago Convention, the 1944 treaty that gave rise to ICAO, and its formal title is ‘Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation’. It contains Standards and Recommended Practices that contracting States write into their own law, so that in most countries an occurrence is investigated under very similar rules.
Its central principle is that the sole objective of an investigation is to prevent future accidents, not to apportion blame or liability. Its other rules follow from that: the State where the occurrence happened leads the investigation through an independent authority; the States of Registry, of the Operator, of Design and of Manufacture may appoint accredited representatives; certain evidence, such as cockpit voice recordings, is protected from other uses; and the findings are made public.
The Annex also sets specific deadlines. The preliminary report must be sent within 30 days of an accident; if the final report cannot be published within 12 months, an interim statement must be released on each anniversary; and safety recommendations must be answered within 90 days.
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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). ICAO Annex 13. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13
MLA
“ICAO Annex 13.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “ICAO Annex 13.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) ICAO Annex 13. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13 (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_icao_annex_13,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{ICAO Annex 13}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-09},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-annex-13 |title=ICAO Annex 13 |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}