After a nearly 35-year run, the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements is permanently retiring at the end of the year. NTSB created the regularly updated list in 1990 to place a spotlight on what the agency considered to be the most pressing safety issues. But the Safety Board said moving away from the list will bring “additional flexibility” to its safety advocacy.

“The Most Wanted List has served the NTSB well as an advocacy tool, especially in the days before social media, but our advocacy efforts must advance,’’ said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “Freed from the structure of a formal list, the NTSB can more nimbly advocate for our recommendations and emerging safety issues.”

NTSB’s list has hit on numerous areas of aviation safety, from fatigue to distractions in the flight deck to loss-of-control incidents in general aviation and Part 135 safety.

The most recent list includes safety management systems in commercial operations, crash-resistant recorders, and flight data monitoring programs.