Safety Recommendations Database - General Information
The Safety Recommendations Database consists of data on recommendations
issued by the NTSB since 1967. The NTSB issues safety recommendations as a
result of its investigation of transportation accidents and other safety
concerns. Recommendations usually identify a specific problem uncovered during
an investigation or study and specify how to correct the situation.
More than 13,000 recommendations have been issued since 1967.
To search, enter your selection criteria into one or more of the boxes on the
Database Query form. Some boxes (Mode, for example) contain a list of choices.
Other boxes require you to enter the text to search . To be selected, a record
must meet all of the criteria you have entered.
Use your mouse or the [TAB] key to move from box to box. The search will
return only those records meeting the criteria you have entered. If an
overwhelming number of records are returned, try to narrow the search by
providing more specific information or by providing entries for more of the
boxes. Conversely, if the search does not return the records you are looking
for, try reducing the number of search criteria.
Once you have specified the search criteria, click the "Submit Query" button
to obtain the desired information. If you would like to start over, click the
"Reset" button to clear all entries. When the search is completed, the number of
records that have been found will appear at the top of the screen. The rest of
the screen will display the first page of the results list.
To be selected, a record must meet all of the criteria you have entered.
Multiple recommendations will be displayed by most recent first; however,
if using the separate option to search the full text of recommendation letters,
results will be displayed by most relevant first.
To find and display a single recommendation number, specify the number from
the drop-down boxes in the first area of the query. Do not enter any other
information.
To find recommendations for a particular mode of transportation, select the
mode from the list of choices. Intermodal recommendations are a unique category
that may cross two or more modal areas; however, they will only be represented
under intermodal.
The status of a recommendation is "open" until the sufficient action has been
achieved to mark it "closed". Please see the chart below for a list and
explanation of all the recommendation statuses. Status determination is made
periodically by the Board.
|
Status
Assignment Definitions |
|
Status |
Status
Definition |
|
CEX |
Closed--Exceeds
Recommended Action:
Response by recipient indicates action on the safety recommendation has been
completed. The action taken surpasses what the Safety Board
envisioned. |
|
CAA |
Closed--Acceptable
Action:
Response by recipient indicates action on the safety recommendation has been
completed. The action complies with the safety
recommendation. |
|
CAAA |
Closed--Acceptable
Alternate Action: Response
by recipient indicates an alternate course of action has been completed that
meets the objective of the safety
recommendation. |
|
CUA |
Closed--Unacceptable
Action: Response
by recipient expresses disagreement with the need outlined in the
recommendation. There is no further evidence to offer, and the Safety Board
concludes that further correspondence on, or discussion of, the matter would not
change the recipient's position. This status can also be used when the
timeframe goals outlined in this order have not been
met. |
|
CUAN |
Closed--Unacceptable
Action/No Response Received:
No response to the recommendation was ever
received. |
|
CR |
Closed--Reconsidered:
Recipient rejects the safety recommendation and supports this rejection with a
rationale with which the Board concurs. Reasons for the "Reconsidered" status
would include situations where the recipient is able to convince the Board that
the proposed action would not be effective or that it might create other
problems. This status is also assigned when the recipient of a recommendation
was in compliance before the recommendation was issued or when the recipient was
incorrectly chosen and cannot perform the recommended
action. |
|
CNLA |
Closed--No
Longer Applicable: The
recommended action has been overtaken by events. For example, if technology
and/or regulatory action has eliminated the reason for
the recommendation or if a company has gone out of
business. |
|
CS |
Closed--Superseded:
Applied to recommendations held in an open status when a new, more appropriate
safety recommendation is issued that includes the necessary elements of the
recommendation to be closed. |
|
CAAS,
CAAAS, CUAS |
Closed--Acceptable/Acceptable
Alternate/Unacceptable Action Superseded:
Applied to recommendations held in an open status when a new, more appropriate
safety recommendation is issued that includes the necessary elements of the
recommendation to be closed. The Board determines the Acceptable/Acceptable
Alternate/Unacceptable status based on the criteria defined above prior to
superseding the recommendation. |
|
OAA |
Open--Acceptable
Response:
Response by recipient indicates a planned action that would comply with the
safety recommendation when completed. |
|
OAAR |
Open--Acceptable
Alternate Response:
Response by recipient indicates an alternate plan or implementation program that
would satisfy the objective of the safety recommendation when
implemented. |
|
OUA |
Open--Unacceptable
Response:
Response by recipient expresses disagreement with the need outlined in the
recommendation or attempts to convince the Board (unsuccessfully) that an
alternative course of action is acceptable. The Board believes, however, that
there is enough supporting evidence to ask the recipient to reconsider its
position. This status can also be used when the Board believes that action is
not being taken in a timely manner. |
|
ORR |
Open--Response
Received: Response
has been received from recipient, but staff evaluation of the response has not
been approved by the Board Members. |
|
OAR |
Open--Await
Response:
When a safety recommendation is issued, the status "Open-Await Response" is
automatically assigned. |
The NTSB’s Most Wanted List represents the NTSB’s advocacy priorities and is
designed to increase awareness of the most critical changes needed to reduce
transportation accidents and save lives. Safety recommendations are no longer on
the Most Wanted List, but the safety recommendations returned by selecting this
option illustrate measures that would help address the issues on the list. The
NTSB will update the Most Wanted List every year, selecting issues based on the
level of progress made addressing them and whether the climate is ripe for
change. This search will be updated to reflect the annual changes to the Most
Wanted List.
The NTSB may issue a recommendation based on a specific accident
investigation, or on broader safety studies. If the source event is an accident,
the date and location of that accident will also be available in the database.
Geographic location for a specific accident is identified whenever an
investigation into that accident prompted a safety recommendation.
Recommendations may be issued as part of, or in conjunction with, an Accident
Report or Safety Study; if so, the report numbers are included in the database
(less reliably for older recommendations). Recent reports are available on the
NTSB Web site under "Publications".
The NTSB assigns a unique Accident Number for each investigation. This number
is used primarily by those involved in the investigation. If you do not know the
Accident Number, search by date and location instead.
Safety recommendation letters are addressed to the entity best able to act on
a problem, whether it be public or private. Addressee is a non-standardized
text-entry field. Names of specific agencies, organizations, states, or cities
may be used, and reflect the name at the time the recommendation was issued. The
drop-down choice shows an exhaustive list of all current addressees in the
database. While addressees are identified individually in the database, the
actual letter salutation may show addressees only in the aggregate.
To limit a search to the time period between two dates, enter start and end
dates; the preferred date format is mm/dd/yyyy. To limit the search to a single
date, enter that date in the first box and leave the second box blank. The
earliest date for which data is available is 1967. The following date fields may
be searched:
- Accident: available when "accident" is a source event for
recommendation
- Issue: always available to indicate when recommendation letter was
issued
- Closed: available unless recommendation is still open
