During a House Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy provided updates on investigations into the FSK Bridge collapse and the DCA mid-air collision.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00recognizes you for five minutes.
00:02Thank you and good morning Chairman Womack, Ranking Member Clyburn and members of the
00:06subcommittee.
00:07Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to provide an overview of the NTSB's
00:13activities.
00:14I also want to recognize that it was a year ago today that I got the call shortly after
00:201.29 a.m. about the collision of the dolly with the key bridge and the fatally injured
00:31six construction crew members on the bridge as well as two serious injuries, one on the
00:37dolly and one on the bridge.
00:41And our deepest condolences I want to offer for the families and all the loved ones for
00:49this tragic event and our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to you as we pursue this
00:58investigation.
01:01I want to start by thanking you for your incredible support of the NTSB and our critical safety
01:06mission including the increase in our FY25 funding to $145 million in the CR.
01:13The funding you provided is necessary to support the staffing, training and technology
01:19we need to maintain our reputation across the globe as the gold standard in accident
01:25investigations.
01:27With your support we'll be able to increase our agency size to 450 on boards, it's currently
01:33427 which I can talk about.
01:37That would bring us closer to truly full staffing of about 500 personnel.
01:42The fact is the NTSB has hovered around 400 personnel over the past three decades.
01:48We need to grow to improve performance, meet increasing demands and keep pace with emerging
01:54challenges.
01:56As you know the NTSB is an independent agency charged with investigating and establishing
02:02the facts, circumstances and probable cause of accidents and serious incidents in the
02:08U.S. in all modes of transportation.
02:10We also serve as the United States accredited representative under international treaty
02:16and lead the U.S.'s response to the investigation of hundreds of accidents that occur overseas
02:21annually.
02:23The NTSB also delivers a family assistance program which focuses on facilitating the
02:28recovery and identification of fatally injured passengers involved in the accidents we investigate
02:35and communicating with families throughout the course of our investigations.
02:39Our current investigative workload includes almost 1,250 active investigations in all
02:4750 states including Puerto Rico, including in many of your districts.
02:53In addition to supporting more than 160 foreign investigations in over 50 countries.
02:59Throughout a typical year we work on about 2,200 domestic and 450 foreign cases and we
03:07expect the number of cases annually to remain high and continue to increase in complexity.
03:13I want to take a few moments to provide updates on two of our major investigations.
03:18Earlier this month we issued a preliminary report and urgent safety recommendations to
03:23the FAA in response to the midair collision at DCA.
03:27I want to commend Secretary Duffy for his swift acceptance of these recommendations.
03:32The Secretary and the Acting Administrator of FAA have been tremendous partners throughout
03:37the course of this investigation and in many others and I want to thank them for their
03:42focus on safety.
03:44Just last week as part of our ongoing investigation of the Dali collision with the Key Bridge
03:49we issued urgent safety recommendations to 30 owners of 68 bridges which I also can discuss.
03:56There is still much work to be done in both of these investigations and we'll keep this
04:00committee updated on our progress.
04:03Some investigations understandably get more public attention than others but all of our
04:07investigations are critical for improving transportation safety.
04:12We owe it to the families of those involved, to the communities where accidents occurred
04:17and to the traveling public to find out what happened, why it happened, to prevent it from
04:21happening again.
04:23In 2024, we issued 132 new safety recommendations across all modes of transportation.
04:30Nearly 60% of which have already been implemented voluntarily by the recommendation recipients.
04:37This success rate demonstrates the value of our safety recommendations and our work with
04:42stakeholders to improve safety.
04:44I think this is an important point that I want to emphasize.
04:47The NTSB doesn't regulate.
04:50We don't want to.
04:51The NTSB doesn't have enforcement authority.
04:54We don't want it.
04:55Why?
04:56Because our singular focus is on saving lives and almost all of our safety recommendations
05:01we issue are dependent on voluntary action of the recipients.
05:06In other words, it's a true partnership on safety.
05:09Chairman Womack, you once said that we punch above our weight.
05:12That's true.
05:14We run lean with a highly skilled, highly valued workforce, many of whom are here today
05:18or watching online.
05:21To them, I say, I could not be more proud of you.
05:24It is an absolute honor, a privilege to serve you and the American people each and every
05:30day.
05:31I want to thank you for having me and I look forward to answering your questions and I'll
05:35just note that Vice Chairman Brown is here today as well.
05:38Fantastic.
05:39Well, we're...