The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has marked a win for safety in local transport, but says there is plenty more to be done.

The ATSB’s annual report has been approved for tabling by the Deputy Prime Minister. It highlights the ATSB’s top transport safety concerns across the aviation, maritime and rail industries.

The ATSB says one the year’s top transport safety achievements was the nation-wide fit out of the bladder-type fuel tank on all Robinson R44 helicopters, done in accordance with the manufacturer’s directive.

The bladder tank replaced the rigid aluminium fuel tank that was highly susceptible to post-impact fires.

But the ATSB says the job is far from done, and it now has growing concern about accidents caused by flying with reduced visual references, such as in cloud or at night.

This has been included as the top transport safety risk area in the ATSB’s safety priority list.

“We’ve moved to address concerns about the increasing number of accidents caused by flying with reduced visual references,” Mr Dolan said.

“By highlighting these priorities to visual flight rules pilots, we aim to make them more aware of the risks and of what can be done to avoid what can be catastrophic mistakes while flying.”

Three significant investigations into flying with reduced visual cues are included in the annual report, along with features on some of the 217 investigations conducted by the ATSB in 2013–14.

The report also details the ATSB’s involvement as the lead organisation in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared in March 2014.

“Finding the missing aircraft and helping solve the mystery of its disappearance is our greatest challenge. Just as importantly, though, we continue our work to improve safety through investigating aviation, maritime and rail incidents at home,” Mr Dolan said.

The ATSB’s annual safety report is available here.