Edited to accoount for arrakis' well made point below...
Just a slight clarification:
MAK is the regulatory authority, AND contains the Air Accident Investigation Commission (the Russian aircraft accident investigative body) which is equivalent to the NTSB in the USA, or the AAIB in the UK, the TSB in Canada, etc. The difference is that in most countries the investigative agency is separate from the Civil Aviation Authority.
My point is that when one is talking about investigating accidents, MAK is not equivalent to the FAA (or the CAA in most coutnries) as the FAA does not have the mandate to do that. That function is performed by the NTSB, whcih is an independent body (as ICAO recommends).
Having said that, the quality of the work of the Air Accident Investigation Commission (within MAK), especially in the past 8 or 10 years, has generally been excellent.
grizz
Last edited by grizzled; 22nd Jun 2010 at 17:46.