TESTIMONY-BY: DEBORAH A.P. HERSMAN, CHAIRMAN

AFFILIATION: NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD

Statement of Deborah A.P. Hersman Chairman National Transportation Safety Board

Committee on House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation

January 27, 2010

Good morning, Chairman Costello, Ranking Member Petri, and members of the Subcommittee. As Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss our request for reauthorization. The members and staff of this Committee, and especially of this Subcommittee, historically have been champions of the NTS13 and its important mission. On behalf of our 391 employees, I want to thank you for your ur6iling support throughout our history.

Our core mission is to investigate transportation accidents to determine what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and what can be done to keep it from happening again. Today, we continue working hard to improve safety in a transportation world that looks very little like it did when we began in 1967. In the 43 years since our beginning, the mission of the agency has not changed, but the world has. Transportation accidents are increasingly complex as machines and technology become more and more sophisticated. Our challenge today is to remain highly skilled and up-do-date with an expert technical staff and state- of-the-art investigative tools to competently and efficiently conduct the thorough investigations you and the American people expect and deserve.

To give you a glimpse of the work we do, let me tell you what we accomplished in fiscal year (FY) 2009. We issued 18 major accident investigation reports and 2 summary reports. In addition, we produced 15 brief reports, hundreds of regional aviation safety accident briefs, and a special investigation report on pedal misapplications in heavy vehicles. We conducted 13 public or "sunshine" meetings on 14 separate accident reports. We also conducted 6 public hearings on accidents and safety issues, including:

--A 2008 fatal motorcoach accident in Victoria, Texas;

--The safety of helicopter emergency medical services;

--The 2008 collision of a Metrolink eonunuter train with a Union pacific freight train in Chatsworth, California;

--The 2009 crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York;

--The 2009 landing of U.S. Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River in New York; and

--The 2009 crash of Empire Airlines flight 8284 at Lubbock, Texas.

Established:

April 1967

Number of Employees: (by HQ and Regions)

HQ: 299 Regional: 92 18 Major Reports Major Reports and Products

2 Summary Reports Adopted by the Board:1 Special Investigation Report 15 Brief Reports