NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman spoke to AIN about the Board’s utilization of social media, particularly the decision to share investigation findings on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook following the July 2013 Asiana Airlines 214 landing accident at SFO, a practice that drew sharp criticism from some aviation stakeholders, including the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).

“Over the years our communications strategy has been evolving,” she said. “We have always provided a lot of information in our accident briefings, but lately we’ve gotten a lot of attention because a lot more people are covering it. Asiana was the first major commercial aviation accident where people had a chance to look at what we’re doing, but in fact we’ve been [using social media] for years.”

Hersman emphasized that, in keeping with the NTSB’s focus, the purpose of sharing such information is to provide the opportunity to learn. “At the core of this, we’re doing what we’ve always done,” she added. “It’s not getting filtered by the reporters who happen to be in the room; we’re putting it up so everybody can see exactly what we’re doing.”