NTSB Training Center Visit 2008-04-25

On Friday, April 25^th, 2008, fifteen AIAA members and associates received a special tour of the National Transportation Training Center in Ashburn, VA. Our tour guide was Alan Kushner, Chief Technical Advisor for Research and Advanced Technology, who had spoken to the Baltimore Section last October, prompting this visit.

Mr. Kushner first reviewed the investigation surrounding the TWA 800 accident, which occurred in 1996. Often called “history’s largest accident investigation”, this aircraft broke up in flight and landed in the ocean. Divers tagged individual pieces where they were located underwater with GPS devices. The aircraft was subsequently reconstructed in a warehouse in New York, and was later re-assembled at the NTSB facility, in order to serve as a training tool for accident investigators.

After the classroom presentation, the group was taken to the warehouse to view the reconstructed plane. The group was able to ascend scaffolding to view much of the aircraft up close, as well as walk around the exterior. The warehouse tour elicited a combination of interest in the engineering aspects of the forces required to contort such large metal and other materials, and that of the human perspective for the lives involved. It was a unique experience.

An abstract of the NTSB findings: http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2000/aar0003.htm

Full report: http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2000/AAR0003.pdf