One Day After Board Member Kathryn Higgins Resigns

More turnover is coming to the NTSB. After leading the National Transportation Safety Board for four and a half years, Mark V. Rosenker has announced that he will resign his position as Acting Chairman and Member. He submitted his letter of resignation to President Obama Tuesday, just one day after Board Member Kathryn Higgins turned in a similar letter.                 

Rosenker said he will delay his departure until a new Chairman and an additional Board Member are confirmed to ensure a quorum remains at the Board.

In his letter to the President, Rosenker said that the opportunity to serve in and lead the NTSB "has been the highlight of my entire 40-year professional life. It is an agency that truly makes a positive difference every day, saving lives by preventing accidents, not only in our great Nation, but around the world."

Rosenker became a Member and the Vice Chairman of the NTSB in March 2003 and became Acting Chairman two years later. He was sworn in as the 11th Chairman of the Safety Board in August 2006, and was renominated by President Bush for a second term as Chairman in October 2007.

During his Chairmanship of the Board, the agency marked a number of major transportation safety achievements. In aviation, the Board removed Airliner Fuel Tank Flammability when the Federal Aviation Administration announced a new requirement for inerting fuel systems in newly manufactured airliners.

Under his leadership, the Safety Board added important issues to the Most Wanted list to reflect new safety priorities, including Emergency Medical Helicopter Safety, Cell Phone Use by Bus Drivers, Highway Vehicle Anti- collision Technology, On-board Highway Vehicle Recorders, and School Bus Passenger Safety.

Chairman Rosenker also improved the Safety Board's financial posture. Among fiscal improvements, he ensured that the NTSB Training Center - which was renamed from the previous NTSB Academy to better reflect the internal training mission of the facility - reduce the operational cost burden to the taxpayer through course fees, short-term rentals and long- term subleases.

During his tenure at the Board, the NTSB was presented with new investigative challenges. Among there were a public forum held  to bring to the aviation community a broad understanding of the growing Unmanned Aircraft Systems industry, and its more than 3-year investigation into the crash of American Airlines flight 587 in New York provided a new understanding of the consequences of excessive rudder manipulations in transport category airplanes.

Mark Rosenker

He has been the Board Member on scene for the Safety Board's investigations on many occasions, including the October 2005 capsizing of the passenger vessel Ethan Allen in Lake George, New York that claimed 20 lives; the December 2005 crash of a seaplane in Miami that killed all 20 persons aboard; the August 2007 collapse of an Interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 motorists who were crossing the bridge at the time of the collapse; the June 2008 midair collision of two emergency medical helicopters in Flagstaff, Arizona; and the March 2009 crash of a single- engine plane in Butte, Montana that killed all 14 persons aboard.

In March 2007, Rosenker chaired the NTSB's public forum promoting runway safety, held on the 30th anniversary of the deadliest aviation accident in history, a runway collision in the Canary Islands. In May of this year, he chaired the Board's public hearing into the crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo, New York that killed 50 people.

Rosenker is a retired Major General in the Air Force Reserve. He intends to pursue opportunities in the private sector.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov