Originally Posted by
peekay4
The NTSB is a relatively small agency tasked to handle 1,500+ accidents and incidents each year. It just doesn't have the manpower to investigate each case by itself.
So when an accident or incident is serious but does not involve fatalities, the NTSB will routinely delegate the field investigation work to the FAA. I.e., the FAA will collect and take into custody all the evidence including photographs, any wreckage, CVR/FDR data, crew/witness interviews, etc., then forward them to the NTSB for final analysis and determination of Probable Cause.
Point taken.
Interestingly, the number of events handled annually by the NTSB has fallen steadily from around 3,500 per year in the early/mid 80s to fewer than 1,500 last year.