National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman, who was the NTSB’s initial on scene spokesman at the deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., last January, has abruptly departed the agency two years into what is typically a five-year term.
Days after the NTSB added its fifth board member, Inman was fired by the White House Presidential Personnel Office on behalf of President Trump, he told CBS News in a statement. Aviation news service The Air Current was the first to report on Inman’s departure.
“To date, I have not received any reason for this termination,” he said.
CBS News has reached out to the Trump administration for comment, and the NTSB referred to the White House for comment.
Inman was appointed by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate in March 2024. He’s a former Department of Transportation official during Mr. Trump’s first term. While he responded to the crash between a regional American Airlines flight and a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport — where 67 people aboard both aircraft were killed — Inman became emotional during an interview with CBS News discussing what he saw when he arrived on scene.
“Last night being at that debris field, I expected to see plane debris. When you look over and see those bodies laying, that’s someone’s family, it could be yours,” Inman told CBS News at the time.
In his statement on Sunday, Inman said serving on the board of the NTSB was “a great honor.”
“Having been the 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,” he said. “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.”
The NTSB consists of five board members. The independent agency investigates all fatal general aviation accidents, including commercial accidents and incidents, as well as significant accidents across the various modes of transportation and pipeline accidents. The board does not have regulatory authority. Instead, it determines the probable cause of those accidents and makes safety recommendations to avoid similar ones in the future.
In May 2025, the Trump administration fired another Biden-appointed NTSB member, former vice chairman Alvin Brown. Brown joined the five-person board earlier in 2024, being sworn in on the same day as Inman.
John Deleeuw, formerly American Airlines’ top safety executive, was confirmed by the senate on Feb. 25. as Brown’s replacement.