STANAG 3318 Aeromedical aspects of aircraft accident and incident investigation

What it is

STANAG 3318 is the NATO Standardization Agreement by which participating nations commit to implement AAMedP-1.7, Edition B, the Allied medical publication covering aeromedical aspects of aircraft accident and incident investigation. This is Edition 8, promulgated 26 November 2018, and the document states plainly that it "supersedes the following document: STANAG 3318, Edition/Édition 7."

A STANAG is not the investigation manual itself

A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical content itself. STANAG 3318's own text is short and administrative: an aim, an interoperability requirement, and the ratification, implementation and review machinery. "Participating nations agree to implement the following standard": AAMedP-1.7, Edition B. The publication's own content, the points to be covered in an aeromedical investigation, lives in that document, not in this cover agreement.

What it commits nations to

The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements", and the requirement itself is "to standardize the essential points to be covered in the aeromedical investigation of accidents and/or incidents in order to facilitate the exchange of comparable information between nations and enhance interoperability." The cover also lists other related documents alongside AAMedP-1.7: STANAG 3531 (covered by AFSP-1.3), on safety investigation and reporting of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft, missiles and UASs; STANAG 7106 (covered by AAGSP-02), on the characteristics of breathing oxygen and its supply couplings; and ICAO Annex 13, on civil aircraft accident and incident investigation.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 3318 binds nations, not suppliers or contractors. It addresses participating nations and NATO bodies for ratification and implementation, and separately states that "the partner nations are invited to adopt this STANAG"; the word "contract" does not appear in its own text. It becomes binding on a given nation through ratification, which NATO records in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD): nations are "invited to examine their ratification of the STANAG and, if they have not already done so, advise the NSO of their intention regarding its implementation." Implementation is a separate, further step, reached only once "a nation has issued the necessary orders/instructions putting the details of the agreement into effect." Nations are separately "invited to report on their effective implementation of the STANAG in accordance with AAP-03", and partner nations are invited to report their adoption of it the same way. There is no NATO-wide compliance date printed in this cover; whatever date matters comes from a nation's own implementation timetable, or from a tasking or contract that invokes AAMedP-1.7.

How it's evaluated

STANAG 3318 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO for the record; the document never uses the word "certified" or "certification". Where an organisation's own accident-investigation procedures and training do get checked in practice, the assessor and the evidence required are set by whatever contract, tasking or government quality regime invokes them, not by this STANAG.

Standards it references

STANAG 3318 covers AAMedP-1.7, the Allied medical publication that carries the actual content on aeromedical aspects of accident and incident investigation. Its "Other Related Documents" also name STANAG 3531 (covered by AFSP-1.3), on safety investigation and reporting for military aircraft, missiles and UASs, and STANAG 7106 (covered by AAGSP-02), on breathing oxygen characteristics and supply couplings, both of which inform rather than bind through this agreement. It also names ICAO Annex 13, on civil aircraft accident and incident investigation, which sits outside our catalogue. Nations report their implementation of STANAG 3318 itself in accordance with AAP-03.

Standards it references

• STANAG 3531Background
• AFSP-1.3Background
• STANAG 7106Background
• AAGSP-02Background