Found this on Stuart's site, not sure of the source:

NTSB's New Direction To Include More High Tech

Proclaiming that "the days of kicking tin are over," National
Transportation Safety Board Chairman Marion Blakey yesterday said her
agency's future direction would include using more advanced
technologies and becoming a more open, knowledge-sharing operation.
Blakey, speaking to the Aero Club in Washington, said NTSB's future
tools will be more high tech, and industry and academic input will be
encouraged.

"Computer data has become much more important" in analyzing aircraft
crashes, she said, praising recent cooperative work with NASA on
several technologies, including composites. "As accidents become
more complex, we need the party process," she said, pressing for an
end to "dueling press conferences and hallway leaks."

After the Emery crash hearings had to be adjourned "because witnesses
were less than forthright with important information," Blakey called
on all parties to pledge total cooperation. "We all need to step up
to a higher level of responsibility."

Several internal and industry reports have made suggestions about how
the board might be improved. While each report "had a particular
agenda," Blakey has found many helpful suggestions in between
political motivations. "We've taken a hard look at ourselves," she
said. "We've identified weaknesses and have gone about fixing them."
NTSB needs to "improve internal training and...outside support."

Sharing And Openness

The board's new NTSB Academy is scheduled to open in late 2003 and
Blakey sees this as an opening for better sharing and
openness. "Sharing our knowledge is critical," she said. "This is a
wonderful opportunity to bring expertise to us." The facility will
allow the board to expand its lab with new technologies and
equipment. Blakey said NTSB has begun meetings with DOT about the
more than 300 open safety recommendations that have been given to
FAA. "We need to sit down, mano a mano, and not discuss this through
letters," she said. The board also is pressing individual states to
address the 3,000 safety recommendations still left unanswered. "We
need to deal with all of them," she said.

Of course we still have the FAA to screw up any progress...