NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. federal agency responsible for investigating civil transportation accidents, including aviation, rail, highway, marine, and pipeline incidents. Its mandate is not to assign blame but to determine probable cause and issue safety recommendations — a distinction that matters because the NTSB's credibility depends on its separation from both regulatory and prosecutorial functions.

The NTSB's investigative methodology is a form of systems accident analysis that looks beyond the immediate triggering event to the organizational, regulatory, and design factors that created the conditions for failure. In the Air France Flight 447 investigation, the NTSB participated in the BEA-led inquiry and contributed expertise on human-automation interaction. In domestic cases like the Asiana Flight 214 crash, the NTSB leads the investigation and produces detailed reports that have become canonical case studies in human factors and automation research.

The agency's independence is structurally fragile. It depends on Congress for funding and on the FAA and other regulated industries for technical cooperation. The tension between investigative thoroughness and political pressure is a recurring theme in NTSB history, and the agency's ability to issue recommendations that are actually implemented varies widely by domain.