The best ways to search and find TSB information

The main tsb.gc.ca search searches only investigation-related content. 

Filter your results 

It’s likely that you’re interested in only one mode of transportation. Select the mode in the Mode filter on the left of the search results page.

Get results that are in the information source you want by using the Type filter on the left of the search results page.

Understand basic search

A single-word basic search is works well for specific words, e.g., intoxication, pilotage, stall, valve, attention, especially when you filter by Mode and Type.

A multi-word basic search, e.g., train crossing, means train OR crossing. This will produce results containing both or either of your search terms. 

Use quotation marks “…”

Putting your search terms in quotation marks will prioritize results containing the exact phrase and results in which the terms are close together. 

• “crossing accident” (you’re searching for occurrences at railway crossings)
• “sweet natural gas” (you’re searching for pipelines that were transporting sweet natural gas, not another product)

Use the plus sign +

Use the + sign (no space after the sign) to prioritize results in which two or more terms appear, e.g., 

• train +crossing (you’re searching for occurrences in which railway crossings figured)
• alcohol drug +intoxication (you’re searching for intoxication by alcohol OR drugs)
• "passenger train" +"warning system" +crossing (you’re searching for accidents involving passenger trains at crossings with warning systems)
• “runway excursion” +snow +ice (you’re searching for runway excursions that occurred in snow and ice conditions)

Use the hyphen –

Put a hyphen (no space after it) to prioritize results that do not contain that term, e.g.,

• girding -capsize -sink (you’re searching for girding accidents in which the vessel neither capsized nor sank)
• fatigue -metal -crack (you’re searching for fatigue in people, not metals)
• “runway excursion” -snow -ice (you’re searching for runway excursions that occurred in snow- and ice-free conditions)

Get summary information about ongoing and completed investigations from the Air, Marine, Pipeline, and Rail indexes. You can filter the indexes in many ways, from occurrence date and location to vessel names or aircraft registration, to find the investigations you want.

TSB publishes datasets comprising all the fields in the Air, Marine, Pipeline, and Rail occurrence databases, except for fields excluded for reasons of privacy, confidentiality, or security. The datasets, which are in .csv format and go back to at least 1995, are released on or soon after the 15th of each month.

The main tsb.gc.ca search searches only investigation-related content. To search other content on tsb.gc.ca, enter your query in the search bar in the main menu (top right), select Canada.ca in the dropdown, then .