NTSB Preliminary Report: What It Is and What It Means for Your Case

If You Have Just Received a Preliminary Report: What the Document Is

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the federal agency that investigates civil aviation accidents in the United States. A preliminary report is one of the first public documents it releases about a specific accident. It records early factual information gathered while the investigation is still underway.

The key word is preliminary. The NTSB has not finished gathering evidence, has not tested its theories, and has not reached a conclusion. A preliminary report does not state a cause, and it does not assign fault or blame to a pilot, an operator, a maintenance company or a manufacturer.

Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4, the NTSB conducts investigations "to determine the facts, conditions, and circumstances relating to an accident," then uses those results "to determine one or more probable causes of an accident, and to issue safety recommendations." The probable cause is the NTSB's stated conclusion about what caused the accident. It comes at the end, in a final report.

For you, this means the preliminary report is a snapshot of what investigators had gathered at an early point, not an answer. If you are deciding what to make of it, it may help to keep a copy, note its date, and write down the questions it leaves open. Those questions are a natural starting point for a conversation with an attorney about what the report does and does not settle.

While the Investigation Is Underway: How the NTSB Process Affects You

An NTSB investigation starts before anyone writes a report. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4, the agency first monitors the situation and assesses available facts "to determine the appropriate investigative response," and then tells the people and organizations it expects will be affected how far its investigation will go. In practical terms, the scope of the investigation into your accident depends on what that first assessment shows, and you may receive notice of that scope.

Others take part as well. 49 C.F.R. § 831.13 requires that investigative information obtained by persons or organizations participating in the investigation "must be promptly provided to the NTSB, except where the NTSB authorizes the party to retain the information."

The material investigators collect is the kind of material that may also matter to an injured person or a family. Section 831.13 gives as examples "photographs, visual representations of factual data, physical evidence from the scene of the accident, interview statements, wreckage documentation, flight data and cockpit voice recorder information, and surveillance video," along with information about the status of the investigation and its activities.

Gathering and analyzing that much material takes time, and the preliminary report sits near the beginning. If you are waiting for answers, the report is a marker that work is underway, not that it is done. A person in this position may weigh which of those categories of evidence relate to their own experience, and an attorney can help sort out how evidence in the NTSB's hands differs from evidence a civil case would need.

Reading the Report Line by Line: What It Does and Does Not Tell You

A preliminary report tells you what investigators had documented at an early stage. Depending on the accident, it typically identifies the flight and the aircraft involved and gives early factual observations. Pages on this site such as Cessna 172 NTSB records and Robinson R66 helicopter records show how those records look and how their status is labeled.

It contains no probable cause, no finding of negligence, and no conclusion about who or what is responsible. Even a detail that seems to point in one direction is only an observation recorded early on.

Facts in a preliminary report can also change as investigators examine wreckage, recorder data and interview statements. For that reason, this site describes any specific accident only by the NTSB's own stated status and words, and never guesses at a cause the NTSB has not stated.

For a family, this can be one of the hardest parts. A report may mention weather, a phase of flight or something seen at the scene, and it is natural to read that as the explanation. The NTSB has not drawn that conclusion. If a detail in the report stands out to you, it may be worth noting it as a question rather than a finding, and raising it with an attorney who can explain what kind of evidence would be needed to answer it.

Why the Preliminary Report's Legal Status Matters If You Were Hurt

Federal law sets a rule that surprises many families: NTSB reports generally cannot be used in a lawsuit for damages. Title 49, United States Code, Section 1154(b) (49 U.S.C. § 1154(b)) states:

"No part of a report of the Board, related to an accident or an investigation of an accident, may be admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages resulting from a matter mentioned in the report."

That covers a preliminary report and a final report alike. A civil action for damages is a lawsuit in which a person or a family asks a court to award money for harm, such as a personal injury or wrongful-death claim. In that kind of case, the NTSB's report itself is off the table.

The bar fits the agency's purpose. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4, NTSB investigations "are fact-finding proceedings with no adverse parties" and "are not conducted for the purpose of determining the rights, liabilities, or blame of any person or entity." Deciding civil responsibility belongs to the courts, under state tort and product-liability law and any federal law that applies.

The statute's words reach "a report of the Board." Other investigation materials, such as factual records the NTSB releases and the underlying evidence like wreckage, maintenance records and witnesses, are a separate question from the report bar. Federal law does set special limits on some of that material. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(a), a party generally may not use discovery to obtain a cockpit voice or video recording, or parts of a recorder transcript or still images the NTSB has not made public. A court may allow it only after a private (in camera) review finds the public material is not enough for a fair trial, and then under a protective order.

So a civil case after an aviation accident is built on evidence the parties gather and prove themselves, under the law of the place and claim involved. Which materials can be used, and how, is often one of the first questions people want to talk through with an attorney.

When the Final Report Comes Out: What Changes and What Stays the Same

Between the preliminary report and the final report, the investigation keeps working. 49 C.F.R. § 831.4 says an investigation may produce "a report or brief of the NTSB's conclusions or other products designed to improve transportation safety," including "factual records, safety recommendations, and other safety information." For you, this means more factual detail may become public over time, beyond what the preliminary report contained.

The final report is where the NTSB states its probable cause: its conclusion about the factor or factors that caused or contributed to the accident. Some records pages on this site, such as Southwest Airlines NTSB reports, show final reports with a stated probable cause, while others, like the Cirrus SR22 accident records, show investigations that remain open.

A final report does not change the legal rule. The bar in 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b) applies to "a report of the Board" without distinguishing between preliminary and final. A probable cause is the NTSB's safety conclusion, not a court's finding of liability.

This means two separate timelines. One is the NTSB's, moving from an open investigation to a final report. The other is the civil one, governed by state law and its own deadlines. They run side by side, and one does not wait for the other. A person in this position may weigh whether waiting for the final report makes sense in light of those civil deadlines, a question an attorney can help sort out.

What Families and Injured People Often Gather While the Investigation Is Open

While the NTSB works, families and injured people often collect records of their own. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include medical records documenting injuries and treatment, photographs and video from the scene, the aircraft's maintenance and inspection records, air traffic control communications, the operator's certificates and records, and the names and contact details of witnesses. Many of these sit with companies or agencies rather than with the family, which is one reason how they are obtained becomes part of a civil case.

After certain airline accidents, federal law also sets up family assistance. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1136, it applies to an aircraft accident in United States airspace involving an air carrier or foreign air carrier, resulting in any loss of life, where the NTSB will lead the investigation. The NTSB Chairman then designates a director of family support services as a federal point of contact, and an independent nonprofit organization to coordinate emotional care, psychological care and family support services, working with the carrier's disaster response team. The statute also provides that families are, to the maximum extent practicable, briefed before any public briefing and told of public NTSB hearings and meetings. It bars unsolicited communication by an attorney or potential party about a personal injury or wrongful-death action before the 45th day after the accident, for accidents involving an air carrier providing interstate or foreign air transportation, or a foreign air carrier in the United States.

Civil deadlines are a separate matter. A limitation period is the deadline for filing a lawsuit. These periods run on their own schedule, not the NTSB's, and they differ from state to state and by the type of claim. Fault rules and damages rules differ by state too, so no single state's rule is the rule everywhere.

If you are trying to understand how an open investigation and civil deadlines fit together in your situation, you may want to consider a conversation about your case covering the dates, the flight and the records involved.