If the accident or serious incident occurs in the territory of a non-Contracting State and Annex 13 is not intended to be followed, which statement is correct?

• A. The State of Registry should attempt to conduct an investigation in cooperation with the State of Occurrence
• B. All of the above
• C. When the location cannot definitely be established as being in the territory of any State, the State of Registry shall conduct investigation of the accident
• D. The State of Registry should itself conduct an investigation with such information as is available

Answer: (B)

The situation tests how investigation responsibilities are handled when Annex 13 isn’t applied and the accident happens in a non-Contracting State. The key idea is that the State of Registry takes the lead or coordinate the inquiry and should seek cooperation with the State of Occurrence whenever possible, since sharing information and expertise helps establish what happened and derive safety recommendations. If the location can’t be definitively tied to any State, the State of Registry must conduct the investigation to ensure the incident is examined and lessons are learned. And regardless of certainty about location, the State of Registry should proceed with an investigation using whatever information is available to build a complete picture. Taken together, these points describe a consistent approach: the registry leads or coordinates, cooperates when possible, acts if the location is uncertain, and uses all available information to investigate. That’s why all of the above is correct.