Hall Said To Resign As NTSB Head 

                  SEATTLE (AP) - 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, was to announce his
                  resignation, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday.

                  Hall informed President Clinton (news - web sites) in a letter that he would
                  leave Jan. 18, although he has two years left at the post, the newspaper said.

                  At hearings last week on the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, Hall said he
                  believes President-elect George W. Bush (news - web sites) should not have
                  to wait to choose a new chairman for the agency.

                  Hall called the NTSB the ``eyes and ears of the American taxpayer.''

                  ``This is the best job I ever had,'' he said, adding he is unsure of what he will
                  do next.

                  Formerly counsel to the Senate subcommittee on intergovernmental relations
                  and an aide to the late Sen. Al Gore (news - web sites) Sr., father of Vice
                  President Al Gore, Hall was appointed to the five-member board in October
                  1993. He became chairman the following June.

                  He used the position to bring attention to issues ranging from aging wiring in
                  airplanes to child passenger and pipeline safety.

                  Hall directed investigations into the 1996 TWA crash off Long Island, N.Y.,
                  that killed 230 people, and the safety of Boeing 737 rudders, an issue that
                  arose from the 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 in which 132 people died.

                  On occasion, he has publicly clashed with the Federal Aviation
                  Administration (news - web sites), accusing the agency's officials of moving
                  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 the earlier crash of a United 737
                  near Colorado Springs.

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