Sean Broderick covers aviation safety, MRO, and the hardware side of the airline business from Aviation Week Network's Washington, D.C. office.
Broderick's aviation career started in 1991, working for Airbus in Toulouse. His industry experience includes four years with an aviation consultancy, where he helped launch a U.S. Part 121 carrier; 12 years with the American Association of Airport Executives, where he served as editor of Airport Magazine; and 20 years in full- and part-time roles with Aviation Week writing primarily about safety and the aftermarket.
Broderick was named the 2020 Aerospace Journalist of the Year by the Aerospace Media Awards. He also shared in a 2020 Neal Award for Best News Coverage with Aviation Week Network colleagues. Broderick and Aviation Week colleague John Croft shared the 2015 Flight Safety International Cecil A. Brownlow Publication Award recognizing "significant contributions by journalists to aviation safety awareness."
He graduated from James Madison University with a B.S. in Communications ('91) and earned an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications ('13) from West Virginia University.
Harmonization of aviation regulations bring increased efficiency for the industry as a whole. It also means increased scrutiny from foreign governments. Case in point: The European Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) prominent place in a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on composite airplane safety, released to the public just days before All Nippon Airways put the Boeing 787 into service.
Lessons learned from 65 transport aircraft fuel starvation incidents and accidents in the past four decades have prompted the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to propose certification rule modifications designed to mitigate the occurrence of similar incidents.
