Safety Recommendations

The NTSB issues safety recommendations to address specific safety concerns uncovered during investigations and to specify actions to help prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future. Safety recommendations are our most important product because they alert government, industry, and the public to the critical changes that are needed to prevent transportation accidents and crashes, reduce injuries, and save lives. We:

issue recommendations to the organizations best able to take corrective action, such as the US DOT and its modal administrations, the Coast Guard, other federal and state agencies, manufacturers, operators, labor unions, and industry and trade organizations.
issue safety recommendations at any point during the investigation of transportation accidents and in connection with safety studies.
monitor the progress of action to implement each recommendation until it is closed, which usually takes several years.

Find Our Recommendations

CAROL   (Case Analysis and Reporting Online) is our search tool for investigations and safety recommendations across all modes. CAROL includes all NTSB recommendations. See the Field Descriptions page for specific information about safety recommendations data fields.

Recommendation Spotlight

Each month, we shine the spotlight on a few recommendations that have been successfully implemented (closed acceptable action) and are helping to further safety. These recommendations span all modes of transportation and recommendation recipients. Visit the Recommendation Spotlight Archive to see previous safety wins.

We urge recommendation recipients to keep us informed of the progress on implementing recommendations. If you do, you may see your recommendation spotlighted here. Read more about responding to our safety recommendations.

Strengthening Shoreside Firefighting Readiness

NTSB investigations into dockside vessel fires have repeatedly shown that land-based fire departments can face unfamiliar and dangerous conditions when called to fight fires aboard ships. In response to NTSB safety recommendations, local fire departments, port authorities, and national port partners have made substantial safety improvements that extend those lessons across fire departments, ports, and accidents.

Those improvements include better training, pre-fire planning, vessel familiarization, equipment, and coordination among fire departments, vessel operators, and port partners.

A fire aboard a vessel in port can look, at first, like a typical fire structure. But for land-based firefighters, it is one of the most complex and dangerous environments they may face.

That challenge was underscored most recently by the NTSB’s investigation of the July 5, 2023, fire aboard the roll-on roll-off container vessel Grande Costa D’Avorio while it was docked at Port Newark, New Jersey. Two Newark firefighters died, other emergency responders were injured, and the vessel sustained extensive damage.

The investigation identified several safety issues and highlighted the need for better pre-fire planning, ship familiarization, communication, and coordination among vessel operators, port partners, and local fire departments.

The Grande Costa D’Avorio was not the only accident we investigated that showed how difficult vessel fires can be for shoreside responders.

After the 2020 fire aboard the vehicle carrier Höegh Xiamen in Jacksonville, Florida, the NTSB found that firefighters were seriously injured after opening a garage deck vent, which allowed fresh air into a hot, smoke-filled space and triggered a dangerous pressure blast. After the 2022 fire aboard the passenger vessel Spirit of Norfolk, the NTSB identified similar concerns about responders’ understanding of shipboard fire boundaries and the risks of opening doors to spaces where a fire is contained.

Together, these investigations showed that fire departments called to fight fires aboard ships need training, plans, equipment, and coordination in place before the call comes in.

The NTSB’s recommendations following the Grande Costa D’Avorio investigation are turning that lesson into action.

Since the accident, the Newark Fire Division has reported significant changes to strengthen its readiness for marine firefighting (Closed-Acceptable Action M-25-004). Those actions include:

Overhauling its marine suppression curriculum
Conducting roll-on/roll-off vessel tours
Providing incident command system training
Updating radio procedures and alarm response
Acquiring International Shore Connection adapters for vessel water supply operations
Developing a shipboard firefighting general order for land-based units
Conducting live vessel boarding exercises with the Department of Homeland Security and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Those efforts are designed to help firefighters better understand vessel layouts, shipboard hazards, fire control plans, suppression systems, and the operational limits they may face during a maritime emergency.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has also taken steps to improve preparedness at its marine terminals. The Port Authority created vessel familiarization seminars and tours for fire departments likely to respond to its New York and New Jersey Marine Terminal facilities, with about 280 area firefighters participating.

It has also hosted seminars, drills, and exercises on communications, hostile vehicles, autonomous surface vessel attacks, and mass casualty incidents on cruise vessels. In addition, the Port Authority is coordinating with the New Jersey Fireboat Task Force, a multiagency response force that includes fire departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other partners.

The Board classified the Port Authority’s response to Safety Recommendation M-25-005 as Open—Acceptable Response, pending further developments from the New Jersey Fireboat Task Force.

The impact is reaching beyond the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The American Association of Port Authorities shared the NTSB’s findings and recommendations through the National Port Partner Emergency Response Summit, its Security Committee, and its September 2025 “AAPA Advocacy Now” update. By sharing the lessons with ports across the country, AAPA helped move the recommendations beyond a single accident and into the broader port and emergency-response community.

The fire service community also helped extend those lessons nationally. In response to Safety Recommendation M-25-009, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the International Association of Fire Chiefs advised their members of the circumstances of the Grande Costa D’Avorio fire and encouraged fire departments that may respond to marine vessel fires to identify gaps in their training and become familiar with available resources, including National Fire Protection Association firefighting standards.

The Board classified AAPA’s response to Safety Recommendations M-25-007 and M-25-008 as Closed—Acceptable Action. It classified the International Association of Fire Fighters’ response to Safety Recommendation M-25-009 as Closed—Exceeds Recommended Action.

Newark, the Port Authority, AAPA, the national fire service organizations, and their response partners did more than address the findings of one investigation. Their actions are helping create a model for other ports, fire departments, vessel operators, and maritime communities that may one day face the same challenge.