What do you want on your Tombstone?
The FAA operates using a tombstone mentality. That is they will take action only after the fact but even then the action they take is limited by the cost to the operator. The NTSB will investigate turning over every stone until there are no stones left. They will analyze the data until they reach a point where the exact cause of a crash is identified. They will present this data to the FAA and make the necessary recommendations to prevent the problem from occurring again. Does the FAA take the recommendations of the NTSB? The answer is in most major accidents they do not. Instead they do a cost benefit analysis to determine the financial impact on the operators of that type of aircraft. The NTSBs recommendations go unheeded and the whole thing starts over the next time an aircraft is lost for the same reason. It is my opinion that the NTSB protects the flying public and the FAA protects the operators that fly the public.