NTSB public hearings: Now you see them, now you don’t

Exactly how much unexplained chaos, death and destruction is required in a transportation-related calamity before the National Transportation Safety Board deigns to hold a hearing?

The NTSB — which decided on a split vote this week not to hold a public hearing into the I-35W bridge collapse — has held many public hearings on incidents that appear to be more limited and less consequential than the collapse of the interstate freeway bridge in Minneapolis last August, which killed 13 people and injured dozens more.

According to the agency’s Web site, the NTSB has held 16 public hearings regarding specific incidents over the past dozen years — only six of which resulted in more deaths than the I-35W collapse.

Some of the less serious, like a fire aboard a UPS cargo plane that caused no fatalities or injuries, have implications for broader safety issues. Another incident that caused no deaths or serious injuries but nonetheless prompted an NTSB hearing was a fire aboard the cruise ship Ecstasy, just minutes into a four-day cruise from Miami. “Although cruise ships have an admirable safety record,” one NTSB member said at the time, “the Safety Board has long been concerned about the potential for injury and death aboard vessels that carry thousands of passengers at a time.”

Given that your average interstate highway bridge only needs half a minute at rush hour to carry more souls than a cruise ship, some current NTSB members may want to check their NTSB handbooks – or their consciences.

Read below for the full list of NTSB hearings into specific incidents since 1996.NTSB hearings on specific incidents, 1996-present

- Motorcoach fire near Wilmer, Texas, Sept. 23, 2005 (23 deaths) 

- Fire on board a United Parcel Service DC-8 , Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Feb. 7, 2006 (no deaths; hearing looked into role of lithium batteries in fire)

- Runway overrun of Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 Chicago Midway Airport, Chicago, Ill., Dec. 8, 2005 (one death)

- Crash of Pinnacle Airlines (Northwest Airlink) Flight 3701, Jefferson City, Mo., Oct. 14, 2004  (two deaths)

- Collision between Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Macdona, Texas, June 28, 2004 (three deaths)

- Crash of Air Midwest Flight 5481, Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 8, 2003 (21 deaths)

- Crash of American Airlines Flight 587, Belle Harbor, N.Y., Nov. 12, 2001 (265 deaths)

- Canadian Pacific Railway derailment, Minot, N. D., Jan. 18, 2002  (one death)

- Emery Worldwide Airlines Flight 17, near Rancho Cordova, Calif., Feb. 16, 2000 (three deaths)

- Alaska Airlines Flight 261, near Port Hueneme, Calif., Jan. 31, 2000  (88 deaths)

- American Airlines Flight 1420, Little Rock, Ark., June 1, 1999 (11 deaths)

- Fatal grade crossing accident, Bourbonnais, Ill. March 15, 1999 (11 deaths)

- Fire aboard the cruise ship Ecstasy, Miami, Fla., July 20, 1998  (no deaths)

- Sinking of the pleasure craft Morning Dew, Charleston, N.C., Dec. 29, 1997 (four deaths)

- Crash of Korean Air Flight 801, Agana, Guam, Aug. 6, 1997 (228 deaths)

- In-flight breakup of TWA Flight 800, in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, N.Y., July 17, 1996 (230 deaths)