The Areas Investigated section includes three paragraphs describing what?

• A. What the investigator observed; What is suspected; What is recommended
• B. What was the weather; What was training; What was equipment
• C. Who was involved; When did it happen; Where did it occur
• D. How the particular action should have been accomplished; How it actually occurred during the mishap; How this contributed to the mishap

Answer: (D)

Areas Investigated centers on the actions tied to the mishap. It presents three focused ideas: what the action should have been done (the intended method or standard of performance), what actually occurred (the observed actions during the event), and how the departure from the intended action contributed to the mishap (the causal link between the deviation and the outcome). This structure helps explain not just what happened, but why it happened in relation to the expected procedure.

For example, the section would describe the intended procedure or checklist step, then contrast that with the actual sequence of actions, and finally analyze how that difference helped produce the mishap. Other topics like weather, training, or equipment are typically covered in separate sections, and background details about who/when/where are usually presented as context rather than the investigative description.