Although it is one of the smallest of government agencies, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is often times one of the most visible. Reporting directly to Congress, the agency is responsible for investigating all civil accidents in the United States. They are best known for investigating aviation accidents but may be called out to secure information about highway, railroad, marine, pipeline and hazardous materials incidents.

PVPA was honored to have as our guest speaker at the January 2006 meeting, Patrick Jones a field investigator in the Air Safety division. Patrick's enlightening presentation began with an explanation of the history of the NTSB. The board, made up of five presidential appointees originated in1926 as a division of the Commerce Department and later became a division of the Civil Aeronautics Board until 1966, at which time they were incorporated as part of the Department of Transportation. In 1974 the NTSB became a fully independent and autonomous Federal Agency. They operate under authority of 49 CFR Part 830. This part contains rules pertaining to preservation of wreckage and makes it a civil or criminal offense to disturb wreckage except to rescue survivors or stabilize the situation for public safety. Operating procedures are outlined in 49 USC 1101 through 1155.

Board rules allow for interested parties such as the FAA, manufacturers, operators and other parties who can provide qualified technical advice to participate in the investigation with the understanding that NTSB is the lead agency.

Since NTSB regional offices are open only business hours Monday through Friday, anyone involved in an incident should call the FAA regional Operations center at (310) 725-3300, who will in turn contact an investigator. Patrick stressed that the FAA will only relay a message and not get involved unless invited in by the NTSB but by making the call pilots have covered themselves. The NTSB investigator is the final authority in deciding whether your incident warrants investigation. Due to heavy workloads, incidents causing minor property damage in which there were no injuries will likely require only a minor report often times taken over the phone. He stressed that you should photograph the scene and talk to a NTSB investigator who gives you clearance before moving any wreckage.

The presentation ended with an illustrated discussion of some recent aviation accidents. Patrick had photos from the preminiary investigation of a Bushmaster tri-motor, which had crashed on a test flight following maintenance work on one of the engines. Photos showed the rudder gust lock appeared to be in place as the airplane attempted to take off. Other photos showed marks left in the grass between the runway and taxiway where the airplane went off course prior to becoming airborne and the controls crossed as the pilot attempted to regain control of the doomed airplane. This created more questions in the minds of the gathering. Why didn't the pilot pull power and abort the takeoff when he veered off course? Why did he continue the takeoff? Didn't the pilot preflight the airplane prior to takeoff? These are questions only the pilot can answer. The NTSB report is still pending.

We also discussed another recent accident in which a Citation crashed on landing. In this case we may never know why the pilot continued the landing even though he was, as expert witnesses said, high, fast and long since all on board were killed. Maybe NTSB will find a broken part that could have caused the accident. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't pilot error. This accident is still in the early investigation stages. This is why NTSB is there, to investigate accidents in an effort to prevent future incidents for the same reasons.