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Title 49 — TransportationRelease 119-73not60

§1119 Accident and Safety Data Classification and Publication

Title 49 › Subtitle SUBTITLE II— OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES › Chapter 11— NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD › Subchapter II— ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE › § 1119

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The National Transportation Safety Board must, within 90 days after the law was passed, work with the FAA Administrator to make a system for classifying the Board’s air carrier accident records. The system must give clearer safety categories than the old system and better separate accidents that involve deaths, injuries, or major damage that come only from operating an aircraft. The Board must let the public review and comment, then issue final classifications and use them for data starting with calendar year 1997 and every year after. The Board must also publish accident and safety data regularly using those final classifications. The FAA Administrator can ask the Board to consider changes, and the Board must answer such requests within 90 days. If a Board employee decides an aircraft event is an accident, they must tell the owner or operator that the determination can be appealed to the Board, except when the accident causes a loss of life. The Board must publish the appeal procedures.

Full Legal Text

Title 49, §1119

Transportation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this section, the National Transportation Safety Board shall, in consultation and coordination with the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, develop a system for classifying air carrier accident data maintained by the Board.
(b)(1)The system developed under this section shall provide for the classification of accident and safety data in a manner that, in comparison to the system in effect on the date of the enactment of this section, provides for safety-related categories that provide clearer descriptions of accidents associated with air transportation, including a more refined classification of accidents which involve fatalities, injuries, or substantial damage and which are only related to the operation of an aircraft.
(2)In developing a system of classification under paragraph (1), the Board shall provide adequate opportunity for public review and comment.
(3)After providing for public review and comment, and after consulting with the Administrator, the Board shall issue final classifications. The Board shall ensure that air travel accident covered under this section is classified in accordance with the final classifications issued under this section for data for calendar year 1997, and for each subsequent calendar year.
(4)The Board shall publish on a periodic basis accident and safety data in accordance with the final classifications issued under paragraph (3).
(5)The Administrator may, from time to time, request the Board to consider revisions (including additions to the classification system developed under this section). The Board shall respond to any request made by the Administrator under this section not later than 90 days after receiving that request.
(c)(1)In any case in which an employee of the Board determines that an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft constitutes an accident, the employee shall notify the owner or operator of that aircraft of the right to appeal that determination to the Board.
(2)The Board shall establish and publish the procedures for appeals under this subsection.
(3)This subsection shall not apply in the case of an accident that results in a loss of life.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The date of the enactment of this section, referred to in subsecs. (a) and (b)(1), is the date of enactment of Pub. L. 104–264, which was approved Oct. 9, 1996.

Amendments

2003—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 108–168 added subsec. (c).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Except as otherwise specifically provided, section applicable only to fiscal years beginning after Sept. 30, 1996, and not to be construed as affecting funds made available for a fiscal year ending before Oct. 1, 1996, see section 3 of Pub. L. 104–264, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1996 Amendment note under section 106 of this title. Multimodal Accident Database Management System Pub. L. 115–254, div. C, § 1108, Oct. 5, 2018, 132 Stat. 3433, provided that: “(a) Establishment.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act [Oct. 5, 2018], the [National Transportation Safety] Board shall establish and maintain a multimodal accident database management system for Board investigators. “(b) Purposes.—The purposes of the system shall be to support the Board in improving—“(1) the quality of accident data the Board makes available to the public; and “(2) the selection of accidents for investigation and allocation of limited resources. “(c) Requirements.—The system shall—“(1) maintain a historical record of accidents that are investigated by the Board; and “(2) be capable of the secure storage, retrieval, and management of information associated with the investigations of such accidents.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

49 U.S.C. § 1119

Title 49 — Transportation

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60