NTSB adds staff to accelerate investigations, keep up with tech

The National Transportation Safety Board yesterday announced it has increased hiring this year to keep up with emerging technologies and reduce the average time it takes to complete investigations.

By the end of the current fiscal year, the NTSB will have 433 employees, up from 397 in August 2019. Last year, the board hired 57 and is on track this year to add 70 employees.

The NTSB workforce had remained flat since the mid-1990s, board officials said in a press release.

The increased hiring has enabled the NTSB to add investigators to the Office of Rail, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Investigations by nearly 50%. Increased staffing also helped reduce the number of investigative reports more than two years old — from a high of 442 cases in February 2022 to zero by the end of this week, NTSB officials said.

Over the past two years, the board obtained direct hire authority from U.S. Office of Personnel Management for mission-critical positions. The NTSB also reorganized its human resources department.

"My vision for the NTSB is an agency where everything we do — from our investigations to our advocacy to our internal processes and procedures — advances our critical safety mission," said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. "The first step was to right-size our agency's workforce, which had been stagnant for decades, because it is our people who will ensure the NTSB is a 'mission-first' agency for years to come."