Ten Aviation Accidents Are Waiting For Investigations To Begin

The partial government shutdown is forcing a delay in NTSB investigations into accidents, including 10 involving airplanes.

NBC News reports that 366 of the NTSB's 397 employees are currently furloughed due to the partial government shutdown. That means that the board is unable to send investigators to accident scenes. As of late last week, there were 14 accident that are waiting for investigations to begin, with 10 of those involving aircraft. The report indicates that 25 people have been fatally injured in those accidents, but did not stipulate which of those were from the aviation accidents.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, warned "people may die unnecessarily because they (NTSB investigators) are unable to carry out their duties. We don’t know what conclusion they would have come to or if they could have saved more lives by starting or finishing an investigation. They can’t even start — they’re just keeping a list."

The board said the investigations would begin as soon as the shutdown ends and they can spend money again. But there may be some delays due to a backlog caused by the furloughs.

The NTSB did recall three investigators from furlough to assist with the investigation of the accident involving Lion Air Flight 610. The Cockpit Voice Recorder was recently recovered from the Java Sea. While the investigators are not being paid by the U.S. Government while they are working on the case, the U.S. taxpayer did pay for their travel to Indonesia.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report