WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - The White House on Monday

removed the vice chair of the National Transportation Safety

Board, the latest in a series of dismissals by President Donald

Trump from independent U.S. government agencies.

Alvin Brown, a Democrat who was the first-ever African

American elected mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, was designated

as vice chair in December by then President Joe Biden after he

joined the five-member board in March 2024.

A White House official confirmed the departure. Brown did

not immediately return an email to his personal account seeking

comment.

The NTSB investigates all civil aviation accidents. The

board investigates significant accidents in other modes of

transportation - highway, marine, pipeline​​ and railroad - and

determines the probable cause of accidents and makes safety

recommendations.

Since January, Trump has fired two Democratic members of

the Federal Trade Commision and members of the National Labor

Relations Board, Merit Systems Protection Board and Federal

Election Commission among others.

The departure comes amid heightened concern about aviation

safety following the Jan. 29 mid-air collision of a U.S. Army

helicopter and an American Airlines ( AAL ) regional jet that

killed 67. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday will

outline a plan to seek billions of dollars from Congress to

overhaul U.S. air traffic control and staffing.

Other incidents have

raised alarm including a string

of equipment and staffing issues at Newark airport that

have disrupted hundreds of flights over the last week and

prompted United Airlines

to cancel 10% of its daily flights

from the New Jersey airport.

On April 28, controllers handling Newark traffic lost

radio

contact with airplanes for 30 seconds

, Duffy said Monday.