The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independentfederal agency charged with determining the probable cause of transportation accidents, promoting transportation safety, and assisting victims of transportation accidents and their families. We investigate accidents, conduct safety studies, evaluate the effectiveness of other government agencies' programs for preventing transportation accidents, and review the appeals of enforcement actions involving aviation and mariner certificates issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Coast Guard (the Coast Guard), as well as the appeals of civil penalty actions taken by the FAA.