NTSB vs. FAA: What Each Agency Does and Why It Matters After an Aviation Accident

Two Agencies, Two Jobs: Which One Is Behind the Report You Are Reading

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the federal agency that investigates civil aviation accidents. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4, the NTSB conducts investigations "to determine the facts, conditions, and circumstances relating to an accident." It uses those results "to determine one or more probable causes of an accident, and to issue safety recommendations to prevent or mitigate the effects of a similar accident." The regulation also says the NTSB "is required to report on the facts and circumstances of accidents it investigates."

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the federal agency that regulates civil aviation. It writes the flight rules, known as the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs), which are found in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. It issues certificates to pilots, aircraft and operators, including airlines and charter operators, and it enforces its rules against the people and companies that hold those certificates.

If you are reading about a crash that changed your life, this split explains why the two agencies put out such different documents. Knowing which agency wrote a document tells you what kind of question it was meant to answer. Neither document, by itself, answers the legal question a family is often asking: who, if anyone, is responsible. That question belongs to a civil claim, and it is the kind of question a conversation with an attorney can help sort out.

Why an NTSB Report Is Not a Verdict on Fault

The NTSB's own rules describe a narrow, safety-only mission. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4(c), "NTSB investigations are fact-finding proceedings with no adverse parties." The same paragraph says they "are not conducted for the purpose of determining the rights, liabilities, or blame of any person or entity, as they are not adjudicatory proceedings."

An adjudicatory proceeding is one where someone decides a dispute, such as a trial or a hearing that ends in a ruling against a party. The NTSB's investigation is not that. Nobody is on trial, nobody wins, and nobody is found liable. The regulation also says these proceedings are not subject to the Administrative Procedure Act, the federal law that governs many agency hearings.

The principle behind keeping fact-finding apart from rule-making and punishment is simple. An agency that writes the rules has a stake in whether those rules worked. A safety-only investigation can ask what went wrong without anyone's rights hanging on the answer.

For a family, an NTSB report may be the most detailed public account of a crash, but it was written to prevent the next accident, not to decide a legal claim. Reading it with that purpose in mind helps explain what it says, and what it deliberately leaves out.

What Happens After a Crash: The NTSB's Investigation

The NTSB's process starts before investigators reach any conclusion. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4(a), the agency "begins an investigation by monitoring the situation and assessing available facts to determine the appropriate investigative response." After that first assessment, it "notifies persons and organizations it anticipates will be affected as to the extent of its expected investigative response."

The NTSB leads the investigation and controls the evidence. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.13, information collected as part of the investigation includes "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." Any person or organization participating in the investigation must "promptly" provide that information to the NTSB, except where the NTSB authorizes them to keep it.

What comes out of an investigation can take different forms. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4(b), an investigation "may result in a report or brief of the NTSB's conclusions or other products," which "may include factual records, safety recommendations, and other safety information."

For anyone following a specific crash, the report's status is the first thing to check:

• An open investigation means the NTSB has not finished its work and has not stated a cause.
• A preliminary report is an early summary of facts gathered so far. It is not a finding of cause, and it should not be read as one.
• A final report states the NTSB's conclusions, including any probable cause and any safety recommendations.

A probable cause is the NTSB's safety determination about what led to an accident. It is not a legal finding of negligence or fault. That distinction carries real weight later, because federal law keeps the report itself out of a damages case, as the section on records below explains.

Why the FAA's Rules and Certificates Matter After a Crash

Where the NTSB looks backward at an accident, the FAA's work runs forward, before any flight leaves the ground. The FAA writes the Federal Aviation Regulations in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules cover pilots, aircraft, maintenance and the operators who fly passengers.

Certification is a large part of the FAA's job. It issues airman certificates to pilots, certificates that approve aircraft designs and their airworthiness, and certificates that allow companies to operate. That includes airlines and a charter (Part 135) operator, the term for a company that flies passengers on demand or on smaller commuter routes under Part 135 of the FAA's rules. Air taxis, many air ambulance services and some sightseeing flights operate this way.

If the aircraft involved had a part covered by an airworthiness directive (AD), that directive was a mandatory safety instruction requiring owners and operators to inspect, repair or change the aircraft or part. And if a certificate holder broke the FAA's rules, the FAA, not the NTSB, is the agency that can take enforcement action.

For someone affected by an accident, these are the records that place a flight in its regulatory setting: what certificate the operator held, which rules applied to that kind of flight, and whether a directive covered a part on the aircraft. Those questions are separate from whatever the NTSB concludes about cause. They are also among the issues a conversation with an attorney can help sort out when looking at how a civil claim might be framed.

What NTSB and FAA Records Mean If You Are Considering a Claim

Federal law draws a firm line around the NTSB's report. 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."

A civil action for damages is a lawsuit in which an injured person or a family seeks money from someone they claim is responsible. So even though the NTSB's report is a public document, and even if it names a probable cause, the report cannot be used in that kind of case.

This is a common source of confusion. A family might read a final report and assume it settles the matter. It does not. The bar applies to the report, which is why the facts underneath it matter so much. The wreckage, the maintenance history, the flight data and what witnesses saw are facts that exist apart from anyone's report about them.

Cockpit recordings follow their own rule. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(a), a party in a lawsuit generally cannot use discovery, the court process for obtaining evidence from the other side, to get a cockpit recorder recording or any part of a transcript the NTSB has not made public. A court may allow it only after reviewing the material privately and deciding the party needs it to receive a fair trial. When it does, the court must issue a protective order limiting its use to that case.

If you are weighing a claim, the question of responsibility is decided under tort law, the body of state law covering injuries caused by others. After an aviation accident, that may mean a negligence claim, a product liability claim (the rules for injuries caused by a defective aircraft or part), or a wrongful death claim brought by family members after someone dies. Each requires its own proof, such as a duty, a breach of it, causation and damages, or a defect and causation. Whether those elements are met depends on the facts. Limitation periods, fault rules and damages rules differ from state to state. Our pages on Texas aviation accident claims and on aviation accident claims nationally cover how those layers fit together.

If you are a family member reading a preliminary report while the investigation is still open, that report is an early account of the facts, not an answer about fault. Families often keep medical records, death certificates, travel and booking records, photos, messages and the names of anyone who saw the flight.

How the Agencies' Work Connects, and What That Means for Your Claim

If the FAA or an operator takes part in an NTSB investigation, it does so on the NTSB's terms. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.13, anyone participating must hand over what they gather, including information about the investigation's status and activities, unless the NTSB allows them to keep it. In practice, this means much of the early evidence about a crash sits with the NTSB while its work is open.

Safety recommendations are the main bridge between the two agencies. Under 49 C.F.R. § 831.4, the NTSB issues recommendations "to prevent or mitigate the effects of a similar accident." Federal law also preserves this role even where recordings are protected: 49 U.S.C. § 1154(a)(5) says that subsection "does not prevent the Board from referring at any time to cockpit or surface vehicle recorder information in making safety recommendations." Changing a flight rule in response is the FAA's work.

The outputs stay different in kind. An NTSB probable cause is a safety determination. An FAA enforcement action addresses whether a certificate holder followed the FAA's rules. One is not a substitute for the other.

If you are following an open investigation, a safety recommendation is aimed at preventing the next accident. It is not a legal finding about yours, and it is not a penalty against anyone. Any rule change it prompts looks forward and does not decide a civil claim. A civil claim instead rests on the underlying facts and state law, which is where an attorney's review of the records comes in. If you would like to talk through how the investigation records and a civil claim interact, you can request a case evaluation.

Questions Families Face While an Investigation Is Still Open

When the NTSB's work is ongoing, the questions families face tend to be concrete. What is the investigation's current status? What has the NTSB made public so far? Is the document in front of them a preliminary report or a final report? Has the NTSB stated a probable cause, or not yet?

The answer to that last question matters more than it may seem. Until a final report states a probable cause, the NTSB has not reached its conclusion. Any cause offered before then, in the news, online or in conversation, is not the NTSB's. Our pages on records for specific aircraft, such as Cirrus SR22 NTSB records, show how open and final investigations are described in practice.

Timing is the other question. A civil claim's limitation period, which is the deadline for filing a lawsuit, comes from state law, and it does not wait for the NTSB to finish. Limitation periods differ from state to state, and so do the rules on when a period starts to run and what can pause it. The civil timeline and the investigation timeline are separate clocks.

A person or family does not need to wait for a final NTSB report before speaking with an attorney about a civil claim. Many families find it useful to understand both tracks at once: what the NTSB is doing for safety, and what state law asks of a civil claim.