Access the NTSB Aviation Accident Database

The NTSB aviation accident database contains information from 1962 and later from civil aviation accidents and selected serious incidents within the United States, or from U.S. registered aircraft elsewhere in the world. Generally, a preliminary report is available within a few days of an accident. Factual information is added when available, and when the investigation is completed, the preliminary report is replaced with a final description of the accident and its probable cause. Full narrative descriptions may not be available for dates before 1993, cases under revision, or where NTSB did not have primary investigative responsibility.

Access options
Below are two options for accessing the NTSB database:

1. Access the database at the NTSB web site using their database interface
2. Learn how to create your own customized analysis of the NTSB data

The first option limits you to the data summary display options provided on the NTSB site. It also gives you the option of downloading the raw data to perform your own analysis.

The second option links you to an analysis of the complete database that was performed by AirSafe.com. That analysis includes graphical summaries of the data from 2005 onwards. Based on a program written using the data analysis programming language R, this analysis includes a number of summary statistics and graphics illustrating the trends of events by day of the week, month of the year, and year. In addition to an analysis, this page provides links the following:

• The R code used in the analysis,
• The raw data from the NTSB site for the years 1982-2015 (in text and XML formats),
• Processed data used in the AirSafe.com analysis, and
• Data dictionaries for the raw and processed NTSB data.