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yesterday

NTSB Member Todd Inman Says He Was Fired by White House Without Explanation

The ouster leaves the five-seat safety board shorthanded during major investigations.

FILE - National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman speaks with reporters at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 1, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, and members Thomas Chapman, Michael Graham and J. Todd Inman gather for an NTSB investigative hearing on the January 29 mid-air collision of an Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines flight 5342 over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 30, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT
Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ​​​J. Todd Inman looks on, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., January 31, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ​​​J. Todd Inman speaks with a journalist, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., January 31, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Overview

  • Inman said he received notice Friday from the White House personnel office that his position was terminated effective immediately with no reason given.
  • The NTSB has five seats, yet its website on Sunday listed only three current members following recent removals.
  • Former NTSB vice chair Alvin Brown and Surface Transportation Board member Robert Primus have challenged their 2025 firings in court, with Democracy Forward filing discrimination claims on their behalf.
  • The White House has previously said President Trump was within his legal rights to dismiss Brown and Primus and that performance, not bias, guided those decisions; it offered no immediate comment on Inman.
  • Inman, a Biden appointee confirmed in 2024, served as the lead board member on the 2025 D.C.-area midair collision that killed 67 and a UPS cargo plane crash in Kentucky that killed 15.