After a plane crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) dispatches a team to the crash site to begin an investigation into the cause of an accident. However, issuing safety recommendations after a crash is why the NTSB is so important.
The investigation into a plane crash generally lasts 12 to 18 months. The final report goes to a four person Safety Board that is responsible for deciding if safety recommendations need to be made.
The NTSB has no relation with the Department of Transportation (DOT) or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Additionally it has no enforcement powers or regulatory authority. Its only purpose is to issue safety recommendations based off an analysis of a crash.
Why Does the NTSB Give Out Safety Recommendations?
As was said earlier in the post, the NTSB is important because of the safety recommendations they offer to other government agencies and manufacturers. The safety recommendations play a key role in improving transportation safety because it is identifying deficiencies in human error to deficiencies in how a plane was built.
For instance, if the NTSB finds that a plane crash was the result of a faulty engine, it will announce that the engine is defective. It will then notify the manufacturer of that faulty engine to look into fixing the issue on other engines.