BHP is understood to be close to reaching a settlement deal with the driver of a runaway 268-car iron ore train that the mining giant was forced to derail late last year.

The West Australian reported last month that the driver, believed to be Peter Frick from South Australia, was seeking a claim of unfair dismissal after he was sacked just a month after the disaster in the Pilbara, which cost BHP hundreds of millions of dollars.

The West Australian believes the two parties are poised to sign off on a confidential, undisclosed settlement arrangment after Mr Frick took his case to the Fair Work Commission.

The fully-laden train careered driverless for 50 minutes at an average speed of 110km/h before it was deliberately derailed about 120km south of Port Hedland in early November.

Speculation swirled for weeks about how the incident could have occurred before BHP released a statement attributing the incident to a combination of mechanical failure and human error.

BHP’s WA iron ore asset president Edgar Basto said initial findings showed the train had stopped automatically because a braking system control cable became disconnected.

The driver was advised by BHP’s remote operations centre to get out and manually apply brakes, assuming he had already applied an emergency air brake inside the cabin.

“Our initial findings show that the emergency air brake for the entire train was not engaged as required by the relevant operating procedure,” Mr Basto said after an investigation into the incident.

“In addition, the electric braking system that initially stopped the train automatically released after an hour while the driver was still outside.”

BHP confirmed the automatic release is a standard design feature of the electric braking system.

Play Video The runaway train has been blamed for a budget blowout, with BHP revealing its full year productivity guide is under review. The runaway train has been blamed for a budget blowout, with BHP revealing its full year productivity guide is under review.

The train began moving and the back-up braking system could not be deployed because of the initial brake control cable disconnection.

Once in motion, the roughly 50,000-tonne weight of the train and its ore caused it to build momentum and speed on its mostly downhill journey towards Port Hedland.

Mr Basto said the train was derailed intentionally because it could not be stopped with the braking system.

BHP was silent on any reported settlement arrangement but a spokesman said findings from the coampny’s investigation had confirmed the incident was “the result of procedural non-compliance by the operator as well as integration issues with the electronically controlled pneumatic braking system”.

“The driver of the train is no longer employed at BHP. Out of respect for the individual and their privacy we are unable to provide further information,” he said.