5 days ago
J. Todd Inman speaks about national transportation safety in Owensboro
OWENSBORO, Ky. (WEHT) — An Owensboro native who has reached national acclaim returns home to speak to members of the city's chamber of commerce. National Transportation Safety Board Member J. Todd Inman spoke at this morning's rooster booster breakfast. He served in several roles while living in Owensboro. Most recently he was the spokesperson for the investigation into that mid-air collision over the Potomac River.
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From the frontlines of national transportation crises, back to Owensboro. J. Todd Inman reflects on what leadership, community and service really mean to him.
Inman served as Chair of the Greater Owensboro Chamber board in 2006. He returned Thursday as a proud Western Kentucky University alum and now national figure at the center of transportation safety conversations.
'We would like to be able to prevent disasters from happening rather than investigating them and then making recommendations. I was there on the two Boeing Max crashes occurred. I thought the first was a tragedy. The second was a travesty. So, I wanted to try to make a difference so I could try to help not let that second travesty occur again,' says Inman.
Earlier this year, he was the spokesperson for the Potomac River crash investigation. 67 lives were lost when an American Airlines jet and Army Black Hawk helicopter collided.
Inman offered transparency and compassion as he addressed the public and family members of crash victims, before helping to implement new safety recommendations regarding helicopter proximity.
'We found that the current configuration around DCA had to high of a level of risk in that planes could get too close. We saw that happen on January 28th…where slight variations outside of parameters were catastrophic. We need to build in additional buffers…You hope something else captures it. In this case, nothing caught it. You saw devastation. It's been 19 years since we've seen something like that. We'll get better. We'll learn from it,' says Inman.
Rooster Booster also honored the newest Leadership Owensboro graduates. Future leaders heard from someone who was once in their shoes.
'Calvert City, Kentucky… 3000 people, two stoplights ,a national spokesperson. I came because they asked. I think they're proud, but I also want them to know it could be them at any point,' says Inman.
Inman now lives in Arlington, Virginia.
He says the streets he walked in Owensboro were the beginnings of his pursuit of purpose.
'I don't know a single person who lives in out building in Arlington, Virginia, I don't know their name, but here you're getting hugs. You're talking about children. You have ties [and] bonds. There are good people around, and I like being around good people,' says Inman.
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