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1. Member States shall ensure that safety investigations are conducted under the responsibility of an impartial, independent and permanent safety investigation authority, endowed with the necessary powers and with sufficient means and financial resources, and with suitably qualified investigators, competent in matters relating to marine casualties and incidents, in order to comply with their obligations pursuant to this Directive. Safety investigation authorities shall not be precluded from appointing on a temporary basis appropriate investigators with the necessary specialist skills to form part of a safety investigation, or from using consultants to provide it with expert advice on any aspect of a safety investigation. In order to conduct a safety investigation in an unbiased manner, the safety investigation authority shall be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision-making of any party whose interests could conflict with the task entrusted to it.

Landlocked Member States which have neither ships nor vessels flying their flag within the scope of this Directive shall identify an independent body to serve as a focal point for cooperation on the safety investigation pursuant to Article 5(1), point (c).

2. The safety investigation authority shall ensure that individual investigators have a working knowledge of, and practical experience in, those subject areas pertaining to their normal investigative duties. Additionally, the safety investigation authority shall ensure ready access to appropriate expertise, as necessary.

3. The activities entrusted to the safety investigation authority may be extended to the gathering and analysis of data relating to maritime safety, in particular for prevention purposes, insofar as those activities do not affect its independence or entail responsibility in regulatory, administrative or standardisation matters.

4. Member States, acting in the framework of their respective legal systems, shall ensure that the investigators of their safety investigation authority, or of any other safety investigation authority to which they have delegated the task of safety investigation, where appropriate in collaboration with the authorities responsible for the judicial inquiry, are provided with any information and technological means pertinent to the conduct of the safety investigation and therefore are authorised to:

(a) have access to any relevant area or casualty site as well as to any ship, wreck or structure including cargo, equipment or debris;

(b) ensure the immediate listing of evidence and controlled search for and removal of wreckage, debris or other components or substances for examination or analysis;

(c) require the examination or analysis of the items referred to in point (b), and have free access to the results of such examination or analysis;

(d) have free access to, and be able to copy, and have use of any relevant information and recorded data, including VDR or S-VDR data, pertaining to a ship, vessel traffic service recordings, voyage, cargo, crew or any other person, object, condition or circumstance;

(e) have free access to the results of examinations of the bodies of victims or of tests made on samples taken from the bodies of victims;

(f) require and have free access to the results of examinations of, or tests made on, samples taken from, people involved in the operation of a ship or any other relevant person;

(g) interview witnesses in the absence of any person whose interests could be considered to be detrimental to the safety investigation;

(h) obtain survey records and relevant information held by the flag State, the owners, classification societies or any other relevant party, whenever those parties or their representatives are established in the Member State;

(i) call for the assistance of the relevant authorities in the respective States, including flag State and port State surveyors, coastguard officers, vessel traffic service operators, search and rescue teams, pilots or other port or maritime personnel.

5. The safety investigation authority shall be enabled to respond immediately on being notified at any time of a casualty, and to obtain sufficient resources to carry out its functions independently. Its investigators shall be afforded a status that gives them the necessary guarantees of independence.

6. The safety investigation authority may combine its tasks under this Directive with the work of investigating occurrences other than marine casualties or incidents on condition that such safety investigations do not endanger its independence.

7. Each Member State may develop, implement and maintain a quality management system for its safety investigation authority.

8. The permanent cooperation framework referred to in Article 10 shall support safety investigation authorities and enhance their safety investigation capabilities by drawing up guidance and recommendations to ensure that safety investigations are conducted in a consistent manner, and shall in this regard develop and implement a peer review programme.