Journal of Accident Investigation

Developing Animations to Support
Complex Aviation Accident Investigations
Alice Park and Christy Spangler, National Transportation Safety Board
ABSTRACT
I n their quest to find the probable cause of airplane accidents and ensure public safety,
National Transportation Safety Board engineers and investigators collect and analyze a variety
of complex data that may be difficult to visualize or explain to a nontechnical audience. The
NTSB uses three-dimensional (3-D) graphics and animations to show what happened during
the accident and to illustrate the engineering work performed to reconstruct the accident
sequence. This paper describes how animation can be used to support complex aviation
accident investigations.
INTRODUCTION
NTSB aviation accident investigations can involve highly dynamic and complex scenarios.
After exhaustive collection and analysis of data, the NTSB determines the probable cause and
makes recommendations for improving transportation safety. Animation has a critical role in
accident investigations: to clearly explain the sequence of events leading to an accident.
This discussion focuses on two accidents: American Airlines flight 87 (November 12, 2001,
in Belle Harbor, New York) and Air Midwest flight 481 (January 8, 2003, in Charlotte,
North Carolina).
DATA COLLECTION PROCESS
During an aviation accident investigation, information and data are gathered from a variety
of sources: cockpit voice recorder (CVR), flight data recorder (FDR), radar data, wreckage
scene measurements, eyewitness interviews, photos, videos, and site survey evidence. These
data are processed and analyzed using a wide variety of aircraft performance and simulation
codes to precisely define the airplane’s motion throughout the accident sequence. The
NTSB JOURNAL OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION, SPRING 2006; VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 23