Just over a year ago, the NTSB introduced a new accident database search engine called CAROL (Case Analysis and Reporting Online). For anyone seeking an aircraft accident report for an accident that occurred on or after Jan. 1, 2008, CAROL became the required search engine. The user-friendly search engine that I’d used with great success for years—I’ll call it the legacy system—could only be used for accidents that occurred before Jan. 1, 2008.
For years I’d been using the legacy system to find the 100 most recent NTSB reports for the type of aircraft we review each month in our Used Aircraft Guide. It usually took less than a minute to compose the search and generate the list of applicable reports.