NTSB ISSUES GUIDANCE ON DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF PASSENGER MANIFESTS
August 16, 2019
On July 18, 2019, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published new guidance for carriers and the emergency response community regarding the distribution and control of the passenger list/manifest to non-NTSB requesters following an accident involving an air carrier. NTSB’s guidance will be posted on the TDA website and will be distributed across the family assistance response community, to airports, public safety agencies, and non-governmental organizations. It will also be incorporated into NTSB training materials going forward. The guidance contains helpful Q&As covering existing rules and procedures and also includes the below “additional considerations” for air carriers:
- The guidance does not preclude NTSB investigative requests under Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 831 for manifest-related information including, the close-out/load manifest, interim documents, final passenger list/manifest, and procedures to account for people onboard the airplane.
- Air carriers should engage early with the public safety agencies involved in the victim accounting process. The NTSB Transportation Disaster Assistance Division (TDA) will support air carrier efforts to integrate into this process.
- Air carriers should develop procedures to consider requests and determine if appropriate information from the passenger list/manifest should be provided to the requesting agency. It is reasonable that once the air carrier shares information from the passenger list/manifest with the coordinating agency, all other requests be redirected to that coordinating agency.
- Air carriers should ensure that corporate and local (i.e. station) emergency response plans include procedures to vet requests from the response community for the passenger list/manifest and that air carrier personnel at the corporate and local levels are adequately trained to implement these procedures.
- Participate in MCI response planning efforts within geographic areas of operation to develop an understanding of the overarching response and the victim accounting process. Identify key points of contact within the response community who will serve in a leadership role during an MCI victim accounting operation and who will likely request information from the passenger list/manifest.
The complete guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.ntsb.gov/tda/TDADocuments/NTSB-Passenger-List-Distribution-Guidance-7-23-19.pdf
If you have any questions about the guidance or your obligations in the event of an accident, please let us know.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Alexander Matthews (amatthews@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6633).
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