What does NTSB’s role become if, during a marine investigation, it is determined to be of criminal cause?
The Safety Board defers to law enforcement agencies (e.g., FBI) if the cause of the accident is determined to be criminal, e.g., an explosive device, a terrorist action. If evidence of a crime that led to the cause of the accident is uncovered, we would typically stop our investigative activities and turn our evidence over to the lead law enforcement agency. This is what we did, for example, with the 9/11 flights such as UA 93. However, because some of our accidents involve “criminalization” of the cause, that is, say a pollution mishap that would otherwise be an accident is considered by a federal, state, or local prosecutor to be a criminal act, our investigation would then run parallel to, but independent of, the prosecutorial actions and we would continue with our investigative activities as we would ordinarily.
