NTSB member who responded to D.C. midair crash abruptly departs, says he was fired by the White Home

Nationwide Transportation Security Board member Todd Inman, who was the NTSB’s preliminary on scene spokesman on the lethal midair collision over Washington, D.C., final January, has abruptly departed the company two years into what is often a five-year time period.

Days after the NTSB added its fifth board member, Inman was fired by the White Home Presidential Personnel Workplace on behalf of President Trump, he instructed CBS Information in a press release. Aviation information service The Air Present was the primary to report on Inman’s departure.

“Thus far, I’ve not obtained any cause for this termination,” he mentioned.

CBS Information has reached out to the Trump administration for remark, and the NTSB referred to the White Home for remark.

Inman was appointed by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate in March 2024. He is a former Division of Transportation official throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period. Whereas he responded to the crash between a regional American Airways flight and a Black Hawk helicopter close to Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport — the place 67 individuals aboard each plane have been killed — Inman grew to become emotional throughout an interview with CBS Information discussing what he noticed when he arrived on scene.

“Final evening being at that particles discipline, I anticipated to see aircraft particles. Once you look over and see these our bodies laying, that is somebody’s household, it may very well be yours,” Inman instructed CBS Information on the time.

In his assertion on Sunday, Inman mentioned serving on the board of the NTSB was “an excellent honor.” 

“Having been the member on scene for 2 of the largest aviation incidents previously twenty years, working with the entire impacted households and first responders has made me respect how the unique mission of the NTSB is extra essential now than ever earlier than,” he mentioned. “Witnessing these horrible accidents have undoubtedly taken a toll on me and my household and has modified my perspective in a constructive method on how we regulate security for the touring public.”

The NTSB consists of 5 board members. The unbiased company investigates all deadly basic aviation accidents, together with industrial accidents and incidents, in addition to vital accidents throughout the assorted modes of transportation and pipeline accidents. The board doesn’t have regulatory authority. As a substitute, it determines the possible explanation for these accidents and makes security suggestions to keep away from related ones sooner or later.

In Might 2025, the Trump administration fired one other Biden-appointed NTSB member, former vice chairman Alvin Brown. Brown joined the five-person board earlier in 2024, being sworn in on the identical day as Inman.

John Deleeuw, previously American Airways’ high security govt, was confirmed by the senate on Feb. 25. as Brown’s substitute.