NTSB Becomes Focus of Its Own Story

When the National Transportation Safety Board agreed to take part in a Smithsonian Channel series about aircraft accident investigation, chairman Christopher Hart and other members of the staff never expected their day-to-day work to become a topic of conversation to members of Congress. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and the Senate Appropriations Committee recently demanded an explanation of the board’s participation in what she called a reality show, when early episodes of Alaska Aircrash Investigators hit the air in April. Murkowski wondered whether government funds were being properly used in the making of the documentary that followed around a number of NTSB investigators as they sifted through post-accident evidence to determine a probable cause.