ABSTRACT

When an airliner crashes, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sends a team of investigators to determine the cause of the accident. The highly qualified team of professionals arrives at the scene and works with members of all parties with a vested interest in the accident to determine the cause. The investigation is meticulous, extremely thorough, and may take years to complete. The objective for the NTSB is to prevent the reoccurrence of similar accidents, especially those involving loss of life and destruction of property. The NTSB publishes a detailed public report describing the facts of the accident, the analysis of those facts to find the root causes, and recommendations for preventive measures by the industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Lessons learned from NTSB reports are invaluable training tools for airlines. Fortunately, major airline accidents are infrequent; thus NTSB reports provide only a limited sample of crew performance and safety issues.