Investigators view parts from the Air France Concorde that crashed on July 25, 2000, after it blew a tire. The crash killed all on board as well as four people on the ground. Following the crash of a Boeing 727 at Dallas Fort Worth on August 31, 1988, in which 14 were killed, the National Transportation Safety Board interviewed the crew, examined the plane, and checked maintenance logs. Investigators use data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder to try to get information about an airplane crash. Accident Investigation On May 20, 1926, the U.S. Congress
passed the Air Commerce Act, a bill that had far-reaching implications. It gave
the U.S. Department of Commerce, under William P. MacCracken, Jr.,
responsibility for testing and licensing pilots, issuing certificates for
aircraft that were airworthy, establishing airways and aids to air
navigation, and making and enforcing safety rules. The Department of Commerce
created an Aeronautics Branch, also headed by MacCracken, to carry out these
duties. MacCracken's staff was given responsibility for investigating air
accidents. It was also to determine if any of the other Aeronautics Branch
responsibilities needed changing or strengthening to prevent future accidents.
On March 31, 1931, a Fokker
trimotor airplane flown by Transcontinental
and Western Air lost a wing and crashed on a Kansas farm, killing all on
board. One of those killed was the popular football coach from the University
of Notre Dame, Knute Rockne. The intense public scrutiny generated by the crash
forced the Aeronautics Branch to abandon its policy of secrecy concerning the
results of accident investigations. The Branch eventually pinned the crash on
an aircraft design flaw and banned the model from passenger service pending
1935, a DC-2 also flown by Transcontinental and Western Air crashed and killed
U.S. Senator Bronson M. Cutting from New Mexico. Many closely followed the
investigations by the Bureau of Air Commerce (successor to the Aeronautics
Branch) and by Congress. While the Bureau's report placed most of the blame on
the airline, the congressional investigation highlighted problems with the Bureau's
procedures and navigation aids.� After the investigations, Congress
concluded that the Department of Commerce and its Bureau of Air Commerce were
reluctant to admit that the accidents may have been related to their own rules
and procedures. Congress also stated that the Bureau worked too closely with
the commercial airlines and aircraft manufacturers to be objective. The Bureau
was supposed to promote commerce through aviation, but at the same time, it was
to find the cause of accidents, even if that meant embarrassing itself or
American companies. In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Act established the new
Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) and its three-member Air Safety Board to
conduct accident investigations and recommend ways of preventing accidents
entirely free from pressure by the aviation industry or government. In 1940, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt split the authority into two agencies: the Civil Aeronautics
Administration (CAA) and the independent Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). The CAA
took responsibility for air traffic control, airman and aircraft certification,
safety enforcement, and airway development. The CAB assumed safety rulemaking, economic regulation of the airlines, and
accident investigation. It also was charged with determining if any other
government functions relating to aviation contributed to air accidents because
procedures were difficult to follow or because government requirements did not
call for the proper equipment. From World War II until 1958, the
government focused on helping airports and the air traffic control system grow
and on regulating the economics of air travel. Accident investigation remained
very important, but no new legislation was passed. Then, in 1958, a series of
midair collisions led to new interest in air traffic control. Investigations
revealed that the crashes, at least in part, were caused by the two different
air traffic control systems that existed - one military and the other
civilian - in the same national airspace. The Federal Aviation Act that created
the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), led
by its first administrator Elwood �Pete� Quesada, would consolidate the
airspace system into a single system while assuring the Department of Defense
that it would get control of the airspaces in wartime. Safety rulemaking would
transfer from the CAB to the new FAA, as well as concentrate on building new
technology. Accident investigation would remain with the CAB. In 1966, Congress authorized a new
Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin operations on April l, 1967. FAA
was renamed the Federal Aviation Administration and placed within the new
cabinet-level department. At the same time, the CAB transferred its accident
investigation role to the new National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB),
which was placed within DOT for support purposes but would act independently of
it. The five NTSB members were appointed by the President for five-year terms
and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The NTSB would also make recommendations to
government regulatory groups related to preventing future accidents. After
passage of the Transportation Safety Act of 1974, the NTSB became completely
independent from DOT.
In 1975, the FAA and the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) jointly established the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS).
This system encourages voluntary reporting of dangerous incidents in flying by
granting certain protections to those making the reports. The ASRS provides
information that is used to identify potential hazards in the national aviation
system for possible action. Since its formation in 1975, more than 300,000
voluntary ASRS reports have been analyzed. The data has shown that more than
two-thirds of all aviation accidents and incidents are caused by human
performance, including improper actions by pilots, air traffic controllers,
flight attendants, mechanics, and airline ground personnel, rather than by
mechanical or weather problems.
In their search for the causes of
accidents, investigators have continued to apply advanced technology. Examples
include new flight data recorders able to provide more types of information
about what happened to an aircraft before it crashed. In terms of organization,
the role of the Federal Government in accident investigation has remained basically
the same since 1975. As of August 2001, the NTSB employs about 400 staff
members who investigate about 2,000 aviation accidents and incidents a year. An
accident is associated with the operation of an aircraft that takes place
between the time any person boards the aircraft intending to fly and the time
all passengers have disembarked in which anyone dies or is seriously injured or
in which the aircraft is substantially damaged. An incident is an event other
than an accident that affects or could affect safe operations.
--Roger Mola
Selected Bibliography Bilstein, Roger E. Flight
in America, From the Wrights to the Astronauts. Revised Edition. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Burkhardt, Robert. The
Federal Aviation Administration. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967.
Komons, Nick A. Bonfires
to Beacons: Federal Civil Aviation Policy Under the Air Commerce Act, 1926-1938.
Washington, DOT/FAA, 1980.
Air Disasters 1920-2000. 
Air Transport Association, Airline Handbook, Chapter 6:
�Safety.� .
FAA Historical Chronology. 
NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System. 
National Transportation Safety Board, Aviation Accident
Investigation. 
Jones, Fred. Air Crash: The
Clues in the Wreckage. London: Hale, 1985.
Krause, Shari Stamford. Aircraft
Safety: Accident Investigations, Analyses, and Applications. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1996
Stewart, Stanley. Air
Disasters. London: I. Allan, 1986.
Standard Designation� (where applicable
Content of Standard
International Technology
Students will develop an
understanding of the social, economic, and political effects of technology.
Students will develop abilities
to assess the impact of products and systems.
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