The National Transportation and Standards Board (NTSB) was part of the Department of Transportation. In 1975, it was branched off to act as an independent safety investigation organization. Its job is to “improve safety in all modes of transportation” including aircraft.
Here are some of the NTSB’s achievements over the past 30 years:
- Required anti-collision systems, called Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS), as standard equipment on passenger flying aircraft.
- In addition to in-air collision avoidance system, pushed for airport operators to install airport ground collission avoidance devices.
- Set up designated radio frequencies to allow for direct communications between airport fire and rescue crews and flight crews in the event of an emergency.
- For emergency purposes only, established standardized hand signals for when radio communications fail.
- Developed stronger fire safety standards for baggage and cargo compartments in large passenger aircraft.
- Pushed for increase use of “runway arrestor beds”, cellular concrete constructions that force an airplane to rapidly decelerate, avoiding runs off the ends of runways.
- The NTSB has continued to urge the FAA to “reduce dangers to aircraft flying in icing conditions, to eliminate flammable fuel and air vapors in fuel tanks, to stop runway incursions and ground collisions of aircraft, to improve audio and data recorders so that they retain at least two hours of audio, and to install video recorders in cockpits so as to give investigators more information to identify the often complex causes of aviation accidents.”
