Reporting an Accident to NTSB

REPORTING AN ACCIDENT TO THE NTSB

Federal regulations require operators to notify the NTSB immediately of aviation accidents and certain incidents. An accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft that takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage. An incident is an occurrence other than an accident that affects or could affect the safety of operations. (See 49 CFR 830.)

Contact the nearest NTSB regional office to file a report. A phone call is sufficient initially, but a written follow-up will be required. Should you be directed to complete Form 6120.1 - "Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report", please do as follows:

Fill in Form 6120.1 : Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Obtain the form from the requesting NTSB office or download it from this Web page.
If you download it from this page, you have two options:
1. Print our Print-Only form and fill it in manually [click the link to download]
2. Fill in our Fillable and Savable form and print it [click the link to download]
3. You may like to save a copy of the the fillable to edit it later on or the print-only version at any time.
Sign the form and submit by FAX or mail.
To submit by mail, print your choice of regional Business Reply Mail (BRM) cover from the list below.

Should you have a question regarding which form you must use, we suggest you contact NTSB Headquarters or the NTSB regional office nearest to you.

There is currently no electronic filing method. If you have questions, please contact the nearest NTSB regional office.

NTSB Headquarters and Field Offices BRMs

Washington, DC, Headquarters

Important Notes

Usage and Saving

The 11-page form and the BRM cover both require the free Acrobat Reader 6.0 from Adobe.
Click this link for PDF Help.

Printing

Each Business Reply Mail (BRM) includes a bar code. The bar code cannot be reduced in size or it will be rejected by the Postal Service. Therefore, you MUST print this page at 100%, without scaling.

NTSB Aviation Page