The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) plans to expand drone operations. It cataloged hundreds of airplane accidents last year and said drones can help crews respond faster to dangerous accident sites.
- Catherine Gagne, unmanned aircraft system operator at the Office of Aviation Safety at NTSB, said drones enable her office to position high-resolution cameras precisely in space and increase efficiency of accident response.
- Gagne explained that NTSB investigates transportation accidents to determine causes and issue safety recommendations for future prevention.
- She said her office is looking to replace old drones and hire dedicated drone operators in the agency.
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 NTSB investigators prepare a drone for mapping the debris field from the Jan. 26 crash of a Sikorsky S76B helicopter near Calabasas, California, Jan. 26, 2020 (NTSB photo by James Anderson) |
 An Aerospace Engineer with the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety and members of the NTSB’s Go Team examine the faring of the Liberty Helicopters’ helicopter that crashed March 11, 2018 in the East River (NTSB Photo by Chris O’Neil) |
