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The information investigators find is, however, published in a final report and docket and is publicly available after an investigation is complete. “We don’t have the authority to give them immunity, so they really don’t have any protections other than the goodwill of all the agencies involved,” former NTSB board member John Goglia said. “They can very easily be charged.” Besides accident investigation agencies, local or federal prosecutors can conduct their own probes and pursue charges, though it is rare in the US for airline pilots to be charged criminally for a crash, according to Kathy Yodice, managing partner at aviation law firm Yodice Associates. “There has to be evidence of a crime, and that can either be federal or state, and if there is any indication or showing that there might be criminal behavior, then yes, there would be, there could be, a criminal investigation,” she said. In June, a 37-year-old flight instructor, Philip McPherson II, was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for a 2022 plane crash that killed a student pilot who was riding with him. The NTSB said he and the captain failed to be sure they were on the right runway and lost “positional awareness” due to “nonpertinent conversations during taxi.” No one was criminally charged for the crash.
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