Trump administration abruptly removes the vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board

By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press The vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board has been abruptly removed from his position the White House validated Tuesday a rare move that comes as the agency investigates more than cases The Trump administration removed Alvin Brown a little more than a year after he was sworn in The White House didn t say why he was removed The decision comes as NTSB investigates nearly ongoing cases across the U S while supporting more than foreign investigations according to March testimony by NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy Related Articles Trump plans to announce the US will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf bureaucrats tell AP Top US functionaries will meet with Chinese delegation in Switzerland in first major talks of bargain war Trump says only hostages held by Hamas in Gaza now assumed to be alive Trump s immigration policies will cost Massachusetts billions experts say Trump says the US will stop bombing Yemen s Houthis after rebels say they ll stop targeting ships The investigations include the deadly midair collision between a rider jet and Army helicopter in Washington D C that killed people in January and the healthcare delivery plane that plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January killing eight people Jeff Guzzetti a former National Transportation Safety Board and FAA accident investigator revealed he has never seen an administration remove a member of the board Board members have been known to stay on after their term is over if the administration hasn t appointed anyone yet and then they leave once the next administration selects someone he announced That happens a lot over the years but that s normal and expected because you served your term and now it s time for someone else to serve in there he stated But this wasn t that This was just more abrupt and directly from the administration n and I don t know what the impetus is By Tuesday evening Brown s photo and biography had already been removed from NTSB s website The agency includes five board members who serve five year terms according to the NTSB website They are nominated by the president and substantiated by the Senate The chairman and vice chairman are both designated by the president and serve for three years By Tuesday evening the website only demonstrated four members of the board Brown was sworn in as a member of the board in April after being nominated by then-President Joe Biden and ratified by the Senate to fill one of two vacancies His term was expected to run through according to an NTSB press release at the time He was the only Black member of the board He was the mayor of Jacksonville Florida from to and joined the board after serving as senior adviser for population infrastructure opportunities for the U S Department of Transportation according to the release NTSB typically works on about domestic and foreign cases each year according to Homendy She announced she expects the number of cases annually to remain high and continue to increase in complexity Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this record