Occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect the safety of operation.
What it is
This is the ICAO Annex 13 definition, and it covers a very wide range of events: a warning that prompts a return to the departure airport, an altitude deviation picked up by the controller, a hydraulic failure handled with the backup systems, or a cracked windscreen. In the vast majority of cases the flight ends normally and nobody on board notices anything unusual.
Incidents are aviation’s richest source of learning. Airlines, manufacturers and authorities report, classify and study them collectively: a single failure may mean little, but the same failure across dozens of aircraft exposes a weak point that can be fixed with a service bulletin, an airworthiness directive or a change of procedure. The ‘just culture’ that lets people report honest mistakes without fear of punishment is one of the foundations of modern aviation safety.
When the circumstances show that an accident very nearly happened, the incident is classed as ‘serious’ and must be formally investigated.
On Vuelopedia
On Vuelopedia, incidents appear in the News section and in the event history of an aircraft record.
Related terms
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Incident. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident
MLA
“Incident.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Incident.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Incident. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_incident,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Incident}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-09},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/incident |title=Incident |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}