President Donald Trump removed the Biden-appointed vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board in a rare move.
A White House official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Alvin Brown has been removed from his position but did not elaborate as to why. Brown was appointed to a five-year term on the five-member board in March 2024, then promoted to vice chairman in December. Aviation safety experts told the Washington Post that the move is unprecedented in recent history.
“This is the first time in modern history that the White House has removed a board member,” former NTSB investigator Jeff Guzzetti told the outlet.
Sources told the outlet that Brown was blocked from entering his office on Tuesday but that he was later escorted in.
Brown’s firing comes as the administration has scrambled to address a slew of problems with air travel safety, mainly a shortage of air traffic controllers, flight delays, and outdated Federal Aviation Administration technology.
The administration has taken a much more hands-on approach across the executive branch than others in recent memory, firing high-ranking personnel in typically bipartisan agencies. The president has fired Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, National Labor Relations Board, Merit Systems Protection Board, Federal Election Commission, and other agencies. Most of these firings have been met by legal challenges.
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Trump’s overhaul of the NTSB is seen as particularly urgent due to public scrutiny of air travel following January’s midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a Bombardier CRJ700, killing 67 people.
Concerns were highlighted again in late April, when air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport lost contact with several incoming flights due to a damaged copper wire for about 30 seconds. Hundreds of flights at the airport have since been canceled or delayed in and out of the nation’s 14th-busiest airport.
Peter Cordi contributed to this report.