NTSB member says he was fired without explanation by the Trump administration

WASHINGTON (AP) — A National Transportation Safety Board member who was a public face of the investigation into last year’s deadly collision of an airliner and an Army helicopter near the nation’s capital said Sunday that he had been fired by the Trump administration without explanation.

Todd Inman said in a statement that he received notice Friday from the White House personnel office that his position on the board was “terminated effective immediately.” He said he had not yet received a reason for his firing.

The White House had no immediate response to a message left by The Associated Press seeking comment.

The NTSB has a five-person board but its website on Sunday showed just three members. The board’s vice chair, Alvin Brown, was abruptly removed last year.

Brown and Robert Primus, who served on the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, were the only Black board members overseeing their respective independent agencies when they were fired last year. Both have challenged their firings in court, and the group Democracy Forward has filed discrimination claims on behalf of the men.

When Brown was fired, experts said they couldn’t remember such a firing from the NTSB.

The White House previously has said that Trump was within his legal rights to fire Brown and Primus and that performance, not bias, drove the decisions.

The NTSB is tasked by Congress with investigating aviation accidents and significant rail, highway, pipeline and other disasters to determine their probable causes and make recommendations aimed at avoiding similar incidents. The NTSB currently investigating nearly 1,250 cases.

Inman also was the lead board member of the investigation into last year’s crash of a UPS cargo plane in Kentucky that killed 15 people. After major incidents, the board sends a member to the crash site for initial briefings and to oversee the initial investigation. The January 2025 midair collision between the passenger jet and Army helicopter killed 67 people.

In his statement, Inman said having been the board member on scene “for two of the largest aviation incidents in the past two decades, working with all of the impacted families and first responders has made me appreciate how the original mission of the NTSB is more crucial now than ever before.”

“Witnessing these horrible accidents have undoubtedly taken a toll on me and my family and has changed my perspective in a positive way on how we regulate safety for the traveling public,” he said.

Inman praised the NTSB staff and investigators as “world class.”

“My only hope is that the NTSB leadership and those who control it stay true to its roots and culture as the preeminent safety organization unimpeded by political or personal agendas,” he wrote.