Independent Safety Board Act Of 1974

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Abstract The purpose of this paper is to show the reasoning for the Independent Safety Board Act of 1974; as well as, the impact following the creation of the Act. The Independent Safety Board Act of 1974 is not a stand-alone act. The Act is a result of years of trial, error, and experience combined to determine the need for such an Act, dating back as far as 1926 when Congress started investigating aeronautical crashes. Furthermore, this paper examines the development of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that the Act was created to protect while investigating aviation accidents. Without such an Act, safety investigations could be at risk of being compromised and untruthful in their findings due to conflict of interest. Lastly, …show more content…

The NTSB was removed from the Department of Transportation in 1974, thanks to the Independent Safety Board Act. The NTSB has no control to regulate, finance, or be directly involved in the operation of any mode of transportation to ensure they are able to perform investigations and make recommendations from an unprejudiced viewpoint (National Transportation Safety Board, 2014). The headquarters for the NTSB is in Washington D.C., with 10 detachments nationwide. To solidify the findings of the NTSB during an investigation and confirm the information gathered is accurate, the NTSB was constructed with the ability to only collect data and make recommendations to prevent future accidents. Any and all information collected cannot be used in the court of law. This protects anyone who is willing to come forth with evidence that may help in an investigation instead of tampering with evidence to protect one’s interest. Besides airline accidents, the NTSB investigates highways, shipping, pipelines, hazardous materials, and railroads (Wallechinsky, …show more content…

The NTSB centers their investigations around a “Go Team”. The Go Team can be built up of investigation specialist ranging from three people to more than a dozen people. The first priority of an investigation is to get to the scene of the accident as fast as possible, collect as much data as possible on a broad spectrum, then decide what type of specialty search needs to be conducted as the scene is assessed. The size of the Go Team depends on the type of accident that took place. Accidents that were caused from weather, railroad, highway, or aerial will all have different needs. Investigators stay at the accident scene as long as needed in phases. The working group can last from days to weeks. After accident investigation, a Safety Board takes place at the headquarters of NTSB to analyze the evidence found (NTSB, 2014). All criminal activities are investigated by other agencies. When the NTSB begins an investigation and the evidence indicated the cause was from a criminal act, an agency like the FBI will take control of the investigation, using the NTSB as a supporting agency. The NTSB will surrender lead status of an accident investigation by request of the Attorney General if the evidence indicates there was a criminal act. During or after an investigation, the Safety Board will make recommendations based on the findings to look for trends or prevent further accidents (NTSB,

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