Media Resources

​​​​NTSB Communications During Major Accidents

The NTSB is communicating investigative information, as we have for years, on ntsb.gov, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn​, through email at ​[email protected]​

NTSB continues to use every available platform – website, email, and social media – to share investigative news with reporters and the public about the NTSB’s more than 1,200 active investigations. Also, to make it easier for the public and media to access information on major accidents, we create individual webpages to share investigative updates, reports, and recommendations. For example, here is the webpage for the Jan. 29 midair collision near DCA airport. 

​​NTSB is an Independent Federal Agency

Under federal law, the NTSB is responsible for investigating and determining the probable cause of every civil aviation accident in the United States (and certain public use aircraft, such as those owned by state and municipal governments) as well as major events in other modes of transportation such as rail, highway, marine and pipeline.

The NTSB is an independent federal agency and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Transportation or any of its modal agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration. However, the FAA is automatically a party to all NTSB aviation investigations.

Please refer to the About the NTSB page of our web site for information on the history of the agency and the investigative process.

​​What Does NTSB investigate?

The NTSB investigates every civilian aviation accident in the U.S. and has the discretion to also investigate incidents. The NTSB also investigates major crashes and accidents in other modes such as highway, marine, rail, pipeline and hazardous materials transportation.

An aviation accident is "an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage."

Note: In the absence of a death or serious injury, it may take several days to determine if an airplane has suffered “substantial damage” that would trigger an NTSB investigation.

An incident is "an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations."

Regional Airplane Accidents

Many of the roughly 1,200 NTSB accident investigations every year are aviation cases investigated by the NTSB’s regional offices in Anchorage, Seattle, Denver and Washington.

If an NTSB investigator is dispatched to the crash scene, they may designate a time during the day, usually late afternoon, to brief the media. In the absence of an on-scene press briefing, information may also be released by Media Relations in Washington on ntsb.gov, through our social media channels such as @ntsb_newsroom​. Journalists can also email[email protected]​ with any questions.

Roughly a month after an accident a preliminary report will be issued. Preliminary reports can be found in the CAROL investigative database. The preliminary report will contain only factual information collected on scene. It will not contain analysis or contain a finding of probable cause. Journalists should not use the facts in a preliminary report to speculate about probable cause, since it contains only a portion of the factual evidence to be gathered in the investigation.

The probable cause for the accident, as well as any safety recommendations will be included in a final report, which could take one to two years to complete.

Please note:

• ​The NTSB will not announce the cause of an accident while on scene. Indeed, the cause may not be determined for one to two years after the accident.
• The NTSB will not release the identities of victims or survivors of accidents. Such information may be released by local officials or the transportation company involved. The NTSB never provides the names of those involved in transportation accidents. 
• Registration or tail numbers will be provided in the preliminary report after it is verified with the wreckage.
  

Air Carrier and Other Major Go-Team Investigations

At a major transportation accident, the NTSB will send one or several public affairs officers to accompany the go-team, a multi-disciplinary team of investigators who are specialists in their fields. The go-team could include experts in airplane structures, railroad signals, powerplants, meteorology, survival factors and human performance and more, depending on the mode and the circumstances.

Often, one of the five presidentially-appointed NTSB board members will accompany the team and serve as principal spokesperson for the first days of the investigation. However, board members are not investigators and do not lead the investigation. The go-team and investigation are led by a senior career investigator designated as Investigator-in-Charge, or IIC.

While the NTSB’s investigation may include other federal, state and local agencies and organizations, only the NTSB may release information about the investigation, including information gathered by investigative parties other than the NTSB. It ensures there is only one official voice of the entire investigation, that of the NTSB. Representatives of other organizations participating in our investigation risk removal and exclusion from the process if they release investigative information without NTSB permission.

Although not possible in every circumstance, the agency strives to conduct a media briefing once a day on scene, during the mid- to late-afternoon. Breaking news, including times and locations of media briefings will usually be posted first on @ntsb_newsroom, ntsb.gov and other social media.

Media briefers will not analyze information provided, nor speculate as to the significance of any particular piece of information.

The NTSB will maintain a media relations presence on scene for as long as circumstances warrant, usually 2 to 5 days.

After that, information will be released from Media Relations in Washington, D.C. through Twitter/X @ntsb_newsroom​ and other social media channels and on ntsb.gov.

Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorders

In an aviation accident, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, known as the “black boxes,” are transported as quickly as possible to NTSB headquarters in Washington for readout. Recorders and other digital sources are also gathered and analyzed in other modes as well. Photo opportunities of those recorders are sometimes arranged by Media Relations in Washington.

Note: The NTSB is prohibited by law from releasing the audio from the cockpit voice recorder. Reporters should not confuse CVR audio with publicly available air-traffic-control recordings. The NTSB provides only a written transcript of the CVR that will be available later in the investigation. However, carefully vetted informational bullets on initial readouts may be released on-scene.

​​Families

The NTSB's family assistance program, run by the NTSB’s Transportation Disaster Assistance Division​, is responsible for the agency's family assistance program and operations. TDA addresses the needs of survivors and the families and friends of those involved in transportation accidents the NTSB investigates by coordinating federal government resources to support local, state, tribal and federal government agencies; nongovernmental and private organizations; and transportation operators.

TDA also serves as the primary agency contact for survivors, families and friends of those involved to address questions, provide investigative updates, and offer information about available assistance through appropriate organizations.

The NTSB makes every effort to protect the privacy of the family members. Access to any NTSB Family Assistance Center set up during a major accident is strictly limited. Memorial services held near the scene of the accident, or crash-site visits for family members, are private.

FBI presence

The FBI and other federal agencies often are partners to the NTSB on scene, collecting evidence, taking photographs, mapping and measuring the wreckage field and generally serving as a force-multiplier for the NTSB go-team. FBI presence on-scene does not necessarily mean there is a criminal investigation underway.

After the On-Scene Investigation

​​Even after the team has left the accident scene, the fact-gathering phase of the investigation continues. Investigative updates, whether in-person or written, may be released. During this phase, an investigative hearing may be held. The NTSB does not have to wait until the end of the investigation to issue safety recommendations​. Recommendations, including urgent recommendations, may be issued at any point in the investigation.

After the fact-gathering phase is completed, an accident docket containing the factual information gathered in the case, including interview transcripts, lab reports and other documents, will be opened to the public. The NTSB alone will then analyze the facts and develop findings, a probable cause and any safety recommendations.

The final report, containing the NTSB’s decision as to the probable cause and the reasons for the agency’s conclusions, is adopted by the five-member NTSB board, sometimes in a public meeting held in Washington. While urgent safety recommendations may be issued at any time during an investigation, most recommendations will be included in the final report.

Updated March 10, 2025