The NTSB excused American Airlines from further participation in the investigation of a December 29, 2010 runway overrun of one of its Boeing 757s in Jackson Hole, Wyo., after the airline accessed flight data recorder (FDR) data before transporting it to Safety Board labs in Washington, D.C. NTSB protocol calls for airlines involved in such incidents to transport the FDR and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) directly to Washington “without delay and without accessing the information contained within them by any means.” During its investigation, the NTSB learned that American had flown the FDR and CVR to Tulsa, Okla., where airline technicians downloaded information from the FDR; they did not access the CVR.
“Although a thorough examination by our investigators determined that no information from the DFDR (digital flight data recorder) was missing or altered in any way, the breach of protocol by American Airlines personnel violates the Safety Board’s standards of conduct for any organization granted party status in an NTSB investigation,” said NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman. “Because maintaining and enforcing strict investigative protocols and procedures is vital to the integrity of our investigative processes, we have revoked the party status of American Airlines and excused them from further participation in this incident investigation.”
