Before there was a National Transportation Safety Board, there was a Civil Aeronautics Board. For decades, the CAB’s Bureau of Safety investigated aviation accidents. When the NTSB opened its doors on April 1, 1967, the Bureau of Safety made up the bulk of the new agency’s staff (some investigators who launched to accidents in the final days of March 1967 as CAB employees returned home as NTSB employees).
The CAB continued its economic regulation of commercial aviation for almost 18 more years until it shut its doors on December 31, 1984 as a result of the Airline Deregulation Act. For many years, the employee newsletter at the CAB was called “Across the Board,” and in honor of our historic roots, we are reviving that title for this web-based publication that will cover the gamut of accomplishments, profiles and activities at the NTSB.