National Transportation Safety Board NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board began operating on April 1, 1967, inside the new Department of Transportation. Concern that investigators should not answer to the agencies whose rules they might criticize led Congress to make it fully independent in the Independent Safety Board Act of 1975. It has five members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to five-year terms, one of whom serves as Chair.

The NTSB investigates every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in other modes, such as train derailments, highway crashes, ship accidents, and pipeline explosions. Its go-teams arrive at the scene within hours, recover flight recorders, and spend a year or more determining probable cause. The Board has no regulatory or enforcement power: it issues safety recommendations to agencies such as the FAA and to industry, and it tracks whether they are adopted. It also assists foreign investigations involving American-made aircraft.

On January 29, 2025, a regional passenger jet collided with an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft, the deadliest U.S. air crash in more than two decades. The NTSB's investigation pointed to long-standing helicopter routing risks and warnings the FAA had not acted on. In 2025 the President also removed the Board's vice chair. Supporters of the NTSB credit its independence for decades of safety gains, while some in industry and government say its recommendations can be costly and slow to reflect practical limits.