Aviation Accident Database - General Information
To search the NTSB Aviation Accident Data Base, enter your selection criteria into one or more of the boxes on the search form. Some boxes (State, for example) contain a list of choices from which you may select. For other boxes, enter the text to search:
You may control the display format of selected records using the display options:
Select the display options you want to use and click on the [Submit] button. When the search is completed, you will see the number of records found at the top of the results table. Basic information about the matching records will be displayed in groups of the size you selected, and may be spead over multiple pages. Note: in order to view records on pages 2 and higher, your browser must accept "cookies". If you choose not to accept them, you may be able to work around this restriction by increasing the number of records to display on a page and/or issuing a new selection request.
The left-most column of the table or list will contain links to accident synopses for most cases. The second column provides a link to extended information in specially-formatted PDF report. Links in these columns are an indication of the type of information contained in the synopsis. Where the link is "Prel", the synopsis is based on the preliminary accident report and should be treated as preliminary information, subject to change. Where the link is "Fact", the synopsis contains information from the factual report. Where the link is "Final", the synopsis contains information from the final report and includes the probable cause. Synopses may not be available for dates before 1993, cases under revision, or accidents and incidents where the NTSB did not have primary investigation responsibility.
A link to a full, extended narrative is available following the synopsis under "Fact" or "Final" links selected from the first column.
For assistance conducting searches of the aviation accident database, contact avdata@ntsb.gov.
Use the date range to limit the search to the time period between two dates. The the earliest date accessible in this database is 1962; however, the beginning date defaults to a recent date in order to limit results. To limit the search to one specific date, enter that date in both boxes. Most common date formats are acceptable, including mm/dd/yy.
You may type either the entire name or (preferably) only part of the name of a city or a place (such as Grand Canyon). The location you seek may be coded as the name of a nearby town or place; for example, Aliquippa rather than Pittsburgh. When looking for accidents near a town that is close to a State border, you may need to search for accidents in one State, then the other State.
Each record in the NTSB data base contains a two-character "State" code. There are codes for all of the States in the USA, some bodies of water, US territories and possessions, some foreign countries, a catch-all "other foreign country", and "Unknown". (Only a limited number of foreign accidents are included; see Foreign Investigations for further information.) The default selection is "Anywhere", but you may limit your search to records that contain only one of the specific codes.
All investigations in the online aviation accident database are defined as either "Incident" and "Accident." An accident is defined as "an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage". An incident is defined as "an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations." The Safety Board investigates only selected incidents, including them in the database in the same form as accidents. Typically, incidents do not involve the level of injury or damage characteristic of an accident.
You may use this field to limit the search to records matching the degree of severity you select. All "accidents" in the online aviation accident database are classified as either ""Non-Fatal" or "Fatal". (There is no injury severity classification for "incidents".)
You may use this field to limit the search to records involving aircraft of one of the categories listed. Note: some ultralights are listed as airplanes in the database.
Selecting "All" will select records that involve manufactured and amateur built aircraft. Selecting "Yes" will limit the selected records only to those that involve amateur built aircraft.
Enter text identification for make and/or model; order is not significant. No particular standard applies to data in this field, but model number rather than name is more commonly used. To be most inclusive, do not be overly restrictive in specification. Examples:
Enter all or part of the registration number. Include hyphens (or wildcard) when appropriate. For example, searching for "HI6" and "HI-6" registration numbers returns different results. A leading "N" for US-registered aircraft is not necessary but can be used for differentiation.
Use this field to limit the selected records to specific types of revenue air carrier operations, all revenue air carrier operations, or general aviation (which includes non-revenue air carrier operations). Briefly stated, Part 121 applies to air carriers operating large transport category aircraft. Part 135 applies to air carrier operations of smaller aircraft. Scheduled Part 135 is commonly called "commuter" whereas Nonscheduled Part 135 is known as "air taxi". Part 129 refers to air carrier operations of foreign air carriers.
Use this field to narrow the selection to air carrier records that contain your specific character string. To improve your chances of finding all records of interest, do not be more restrictive than necessary; for example, do not enter [delta airlines] when [delta] will suffice. The airline names are not presently standardized, so entering a character string that contains only a portion of the airline name is more likely to yield the record(s) you seek than would a character string that attempts to make an exact match.
Each investigation is assigned a unique 10- or 11- character "accident number" by the NTSB. It begins with the designator of the investigating office (for example, LAX), followed by the two-digit fiscal year, followed by a code for the type of investigation. The remainder of the string is usually a sequence number.
You may use this field to limit the search to records matching the report status. Briefly stated, Preliminary synopsis is based on the preliminary accident report and should be treated as preliminary information, subject to change. Factual, the synopsis contains information from the factual report. Final, the synopsis contains information from the final report and includes the probable cause.
| Searching for: | Returns documents containing |
| light | (words containing "light") light, light., "light etc. |
| flight plan | A flight plan was filed before departure.
No flight plan was filed. |
| "light*" | All other lights were cancelled.
Light, lighting |
| "light*" and "flight*" | light and flight |
| "light*" or "flight*" | light, lighting, flight, or flights |