NBAA Applauds Aviation Safety Champion Michael Graham’s Selection for Second NTSB Term

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) welcomes President Trump’s nomination of Michael Graham to serve another five-year term on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Prior to his original December 2018 nomination to a seat at the NTSB, Graham worked for more than 20 years at Textron Aviation and served as the company’s director of flight operations safety, security and standardization since 2012.

“We are pleased that Mike Graham has been nominated to continue his outstanding service at the NTSB,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “He is a steadfast professional and a tireless advocate for safety, and his leadership is critically needed in this moment, when the industry is more focused than ever on the safety of flight. We look forward to continuing our work with Mike upon his confirmation to a second term.”

Graham is a frequent participant in NBAA’s annual Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) and other association events. He also previously served as chair of the NBAA Safety Committee’s Single Pilot Safety Working Group.

In a 2021 profile in NBAA’s Business Aviation Insider magazine, Graham highlighted the benefits of an effective safety management system, and emphasized the importance of full employee engagement toward achieving a flight operation’s safety goals.

“Safety is no longer simply reacting to incidents or accidents, but is about bringing safety-conscious behavior to the forefront of an organization – every day, every task,” Graham told NBAA in the 2021 magazine interview.

Graham began his aviation career flying A-7s and F/A-18s for the U.S. Navy. He later worked for McDonnell Douglas (and later Boeing) as an F/A-18 aircrew instructor and avionics integration engineer, before moving to Textron Aviation’s Cessna subsidiary as a demonstration and production flight test pilot.

He is a certified airline transport pilot with 10,000 flight hours and is type rated in six different Citation models. Graham earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico.

If reconfirmed by the Senate, Graham’s term on the Board would end Dec. 31, 2030.