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General aviation crash course: the first 15 days.

Article Excerpt
Receiving a telephone call from the family of someone involved in a small airplane or helicopter crash is gut-wrenching. Because of the shocking nature of the event and because of the cloak of secrecy thrown around the accident investigation by "insiders"--the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the aircraft operator, the fixed base operator, and others--family members often call attorneys very soon after a crash to get someone on their side who will help answer their questions. Amid the urgency of funerals, hospital visits, critical medical care, and economic calamity, every family wants to know two things: that their lost relative did not cause the crash and, if the person they lost was a pilot, a crew member, or a mechanic, that the investigation will exonerate their loved one.

The family will look to you to bring them that news--a daunting task under the most favorable conditions, and an impossible one under other conditions. They want, and need, to know how they are going to survive. And they want to know, "Is there a case?"

Family members' focus is properly on their problems, not on whether you have an encyclopedic grasp of aircraft and federal investigations. In fact, they may have contacted you because they have discovered that there is no simple process for getting information about the crash. Your investigation will be difficult--and in the first 15 days after the crash, more people involved in the investigation will want to avoid providing information than will help you. But in general aviation crashes, nothing succeeds like shoe leather, telephones, and a plan. Fifteen days after the crash you won't have all the answers, but you will be able to make some reasonably informed decisions and give some preliminary advice.

While the family is burying a loved one, the NTSB, the aircraft manufacturer, and other interested parties are poring over the crash scene and carting away evidence. The rules do not permit you to join them. NTSB investigation procedures are outlined in 49 C.F.R. [section]832. Section 831.11 provides that parties to the investigation "shall be limited to those persons, government agencies, companies, and associations whose employees, functions, activities, or products were involved in the accident or incident and who can provide suitable qualified technical personnel actively to assist in the investigation." Subsection (a)(3) provides that "no party to the investigation shall be represented in any aspect of the NTSB investigation by any person who also represents claimants or insurers."

In practice, this means that only those with a stake in defending the accident can be "party participants" in the investigation. Those who lost a loved one in the accident are excluded. However, it is important to understand how the investigation will proceed, even though you are not formally allowed to participate.

The NTSB dispatches a rapid-response team to the site of any domestic crash it investigates. (1) The team consists of an investigator in charge (IIC) and, at his or her choosing, one or more NTSB employees who will be responsible for group investigations. Often the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will send a representative to the scene.

The investigator in charge will usually invite representatives of the companies that manufactured various aircraft parts, as well as the aircraft operator, to participate in the investigation on the premise that one or all of them can contribute technical expertise or specific information about the aircraft, flight, or crew. Representatives from the manufacturers' safety departments will also...

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