What to know about the NTSB, the agency investigating the DC plane crash

WASHINGTON — 

A collision betwixt an American Airlines rider pitchy and an Army chopper adjacent Washington, D.C., that killed 67 radical brought renewed absorption connected the national bureau charged with investigating aviation disasters.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy has described the probe into the clang arsenic an "all-hands-on-deck event" for the agency.

Here are immoderate things to cognize astir the NTSB:

What does the bureau do?

The NTSB is an autarkic national bureau liable for investigating each civilian aviation accidents arsenic good arsenic superior incidents successful the U.S. involving different modes of transportation, specified arsenic railroad disasters and large accidents involving centrifugal vehicles, marine vessels, pipelines and adjacent commercialized abstraction operators.

"We're present to guarantee the American radical that we are going to permission nary chromatic unturned successful this investigation," Homendy said, noting the probe is successful the precise aboriginal stages. "We are going to behaviour a thorough probe of this full tragedy, looking astatine the facts."

The bureau has 5 committee members who service five-year presumption and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

How volition the probe work?

For the probe into Wednesday's crash, the NTSB volition found respective antithetic moving groups, each liable for investigating antithetic areas connected to the accident, committee subordinate Todd Inman said.

Inman said those groups see operations, which volition analyse formation past and crewmember duties; structures, which volition papers airframe wreckage and the mishap scene; powerfulness plants, which volition absorption connected craft engines and motor accessories; systems, which volition survey the electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic components of the 2 aircraft; aerial postulation control, which volition reappraisal formation way surveillance information, including radar, and controller-pilot communications; endurance factors, which volition analyse the injuries to the unit and passengers and clang and rescue efforts; and a chopper group.

The probe besides volition see a human-performance radical that volition beryllium a portion of the operations, aerial postulation power and chopper groups and volition survey the unit show and immoderate factors that could beryllium progressive specified arsenic quality error, including fatigue, medications, aesculapian histories, grooming and workload, Inman said.

How agelong volition the probe take?

NTSB officials did not accidental Thursday however agelong the probe would take, but mishap investigations often instrumentality betwixt 1 to 2 years to complete. The bureau typically releases a preliminary study wrong a fewer weeks of the mishap that includes a synopsis of accusation collected astatine the scene.

What is the NTSB's history?

The NTSB past dates to 1926, erstwhile Congress passed a instrumentality charging the U.S. Department of Commerce with investigating craft accidents. It was established arsenic an autarkic bureau wrong the U.S. Department of Transportation successful 1967 and past separated by Congress successful 1974 arsenic a stand-alone organization, afloat autarkic from immoderate different national agencies. Since its instauration successful 1967, the bureau reports it has investigated much than 153,000 aviation accidents and incidents.