• The loss of three or more lives on a commercial passenger vessel. • Loss of life or serious injury to 12 or more persons on any commercial vessel. • The loss of a mechanically propelled commercial vessel of 1,600 or more gross tons. • Any marine casualty with loss of life involving a highway, bridge, railroad, or other shore side structure • Serious threat, as determined by the USCG commandant and concurred with by the NTSB chairman, or their designees, to life, property, or the environment by hazardous materials. • Significant safety issues, as determined by the commandant and concurred with by the chairman, or their designees, relating to Coast Guard marine safety functions. If a marine casualty meets any of the above significant marine accident criterion, the NTSB may elect to be the lead federal investigative agency. In marine casualties involving a public (federal government) and a non-public vessel, if the vessel is Coast Guard the NTSB must investigate and be the lead federal agency. With casualties involving other public and non-public vessels, in most cases, the NTSB investigates as the lead federal agency When a major transportation accident occurs, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the U.S. federal agency that steps in to investigate, determine probable cause and issue safety recommendations to prevent future accidents. The agency’s work has ensured that the American transportation system continues to be among the safest in the world. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a small, independent federal agency with responsibility for investigating transportation accidents; conducting transportation safety studies; issuing safety recommendations; aiding victims’ families after aviation and passenger rail disasters; and promoting transportation safety. The NTSB determines the probable cause of each accident investigated and issues safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents.” The NTSB makes safety recommendations to federal and state agencies, transportation providers, and manufacturers, which may or may not choose to implement them. In recent years, NTSB recommendations have helped build support for laws enacted to mandate positive train control systems, a safety technology now being installed on certain railroad lines; Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations to address airline pilot fatigue; state laws addressing distracted driving; federal safety standards for helicopter air ambulances; and crashworthiness standards for helicopter fuel systems, which are required under a new federal law. The NTSB investigates the following transportation-related accidents and safety issues: • all accidents involving civil aircraft and public aircraft, other than military or intelligence agency aircraft, within the United States and its territories; • selected highway and railroad grade crossing accidents; • railroad accidents involving passenger trains, loss of life, or significant property damage; • pipeline accidents involving significant property or environmental damage, or loss of life; • in coordination with the Coast Guard, major marine casualties occurring on the navigable waters or territorial sea of the United States, or involving U.S.-flag vessels, except those involving only public (i.e., government-owned or -operated) vessels; and • other selected catastrophic accidents or recurring problems involving transportation safety investigated at the Board's discretion. You are not automatically invited to the Party Let there be no mistake here and fully understand, if your company asset has been involved in an accident that NTSB is assigned to lead the investigation, your company is not automatically invited to participate in their investigation. You are the last one invited in the room as this could be seen as a one- sided opinion and not being open minded to the evidence. A number of safeguards exist to prevent external entities from influencing NTSB findings and conclusions. First, while interested parties may provide technical expertise in the fact-finding phase of an investigation and may submit their own analyses for consideration by NTSB investigators, the NTSB bases its conclusions strictly on analysis and recommendations by NTSB staff. They will subpoena, in some cases the evidence they need, if they already don’t have what is required from you and you’re legally mandated to provide the raw information with no idea of why they want it. While the NTSB employs investigators and subject matter experts in a number of engineering and technical disciplines, it relies extensively on the expertise of manufacturers, transportation providers, and regulatory agencies connected with an accident to assist with investigations. It does so through what is known as the "party process," in which the NTSB investigator-in-charge designates parties to participate in an investigation. The parties then assign qualified technical personnel to assist the NTSB. Other than the FAA in aviation cases, no party has a specific right to hold party status in an investigation; parties can be sanctioned or lose their party status if they do not fulfill assigned duties and comply with rules of conduct. They will rely heavily on manufactures of the equipment that may have failed or that the operators negligent misuse of the equipment’s proper use. NTSB will use the manufactures experience on training and human mechanics of operating the equipment to determine where the failure occurred. To achieve its objectives, Congress granted the NTSB “priority over any investigation by another department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States Government.” But the grant of priority, and thus initial authority over the accident site and investigative activities, did not mean exclusive authority. More precisely, Congress added the requirement that the NTSB “provide for appropriate participation by other departments, agencies, or instrumentalities in the investigation.” Congress, however, specifically excluded these other entities from participating in the probable cause determination; that was reserved to the NTSB. As a result, regulatory agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are routinely added as a “party,” or participating entity, in an NTSB accident investigation Importantly, Congress permits investigations by other governmental entities to run simultaneously or parallel with the NTSB safety investigation. Specifically, Congress expressly instructed that the statutory powers of the NTSB do not affect the authority of another department, agency, or instrumentality of the Government to investigate an accident under applicable law or to obtain information directly from the parties involved in, and witnesses to, the accident. Consequently, these other investigative entities may, and frequently do, run parallel criminal investigations, and even prosecute underlying misconduct related to major accidents being investigated by the NTSB.