Deborah Hersman

" We always see her in the worst of times after a terrible accident but it's what she does off camera that makes their job so important. Here's our power player of the."

" Sort home when we got the call about -- about the mid air collision over the Hudson."

" Deborah -- as chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and she's talking about a 24/7. Nature of her job. In August the helicopter and single engine plane collided in New York. Within hours she and her team were on the scene and didn't charge the accident had -- and very complex air space with a staff of just 400. The NTSB investigates every civil aviation accident and any significant rail highway marine and even pipeline mishap. Their job to find out what happened and recommend changes so it doesn't happen again."

" We say this is what we see and it's not sugarcoat it and we're not trying -- kind of please anyone. Except for the public that we serve."

" It starts in the communications -- staff often gets first word of an accident from the media."

" These guys put out calls and pages all of the team members."

" And not start putting into place all of our launch activities fifteen to twenty people deployed to work craft side. Eventually they study every part they recover and do simulations to try to recreate the accident."

" I love reading Nancy Drew novels when I was a kid. And I think that for many of us getting to do a job where we get to solve puzzles and find out what happened. In it is very CSI like."

" amid the detective work. It's been never loses sight of the human cost."

" Every accident. They go to you remember and ourselves a little piece -- that it's hard to let go and you know you remember of --"

" And that is what drives the NTSB. -- it has no enforcement powers the agency will take on big companies and even public officials demanding change."

" Which we've issued about thirteen thousand recommendations. And over 80% of those have been -- that are closed out in a favorable way."

" But the NTSB doesn't always get its way. It publishes -- most wanted list of proposals safety improvements. At the top now setting stricter work hours to prevent fatigue and -- operators from using cell phones and texting. -- her husband has been interest didn't transportation most of her life."

" My father was an air force."

" And I solo in a piper -- before I got my driver's license no win."

" How many things can go wrong. Are you -- terribly nervous traveler one thing I always do when I when I get on an airplane when you're listening to the very thing. You need to look at where those emergency exits are and count how many arrests between you and -- emergency exits if you get into a dark situation -- it's not well lit. You know where you wanna go you literally do this every time you get an -- I absolutely do it every time I get on a plane."

" Her husband says plane crash investigations on average take about a year but after that collision of of the Hudson. The NTSB made recommendations in two weeks on how to better manage the heavy air traffic around New York --"