Transportation Safety Chief to Resign

Jim Hall, who has overseen investigations into the TWA Flight 800 and John F. Kennedy Jr. plane crashes during his six-year tenure as head of the National Transportation Safety Board, is resigning Jan. 18, his office said Monday.

Hall informed President Clinton that he would leave, although he has two years left in his term as a board member. His term as chairman has expired, however, and he has served as acting chairman.

“The men and women of the safety board serve our nation with dedication and distinction. I will miss my association with them,” Hall said in his letter to Clinton.

Hall, of Chattanooga, Tenn., did not announce his plans.

But he did say that his last official act will be to break ground for a new safety training academy at the Loudoun County, Va., campus of George Washington University, which will also be home to the rebuilt hulk of the Trans World Airlines Boeing 747 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 1996 as Flight 800, killing 230 people. Hall said he considers the training academy one of his proudest accomplishments.

The Washington Post reported that Clinton was considering naming board member Carol Carmody, a Democrat, as vice chairman; she would become acting chairman when Hall departs. President-elect George W. Bush could name his own chairman after taking office.

Hall was an aide to Bush’s presidential rival, Democrat Al Gore, while Gore was a senator from Tennessee. He was named to the board after Gore became vice president. He also has served as counsel to the Senate subcommittee on intergovernmental relations.

He used the position to bring attention to issues such as aging wiring in airplanes, protection of child passengers and pipeline safety.

In addition to the 1996 TWA crash, Hall directed an investigation into the safety of Boeing 737 rudders, an issue that arose from the 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 near Pittsburgh, in which 132 people died.

He has sometimes complained that the Federal Aviation Administration moves too slowly to respond to the safety board’s recommendations. In the Flight 427 probe, the board ruled that the crash probably resulted from a rudder defect that also was implicated in a 1991 crash of a United Airlines 737 near Colorado Springs, Colo., that killed 25.

After initially maintaining, along with Boeing officials, that the rudder was safe, the FAA issued an order earlier this year for Boeing to redesign the component.

A major project pushed by Hall was establishment of a separate division in the agency to assist the families of accident victims in dealing with the aftermath of disasters.

He also promoted the “one level of safety” program for commuter airlines.