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.
The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) list of most wanted safety improvements is considered by many to be the gospel in terms of pinpointing the most prominent risks in aviation (and other transportation modes) that warrant industry attention. It's interesting to note, however, that aviation items on NTSB's list usually get there because they were central in the cause of a disaster, and they're most often removed based on what FAA (or industry) does about them.
A successful safety management system (SMS) implementation is a multi-dozen-step process with details that vary from organization to organization -- even within the same industry segment. During a session on SMS at AVIATION WEEK'S MRO event in April, Transport Canada Chief, Technical and National Programs Jacqueline Booth-Bourdeau acknowledged this fact, and then threw the MRO segment a bone by laying out what she dubs the seven critical steps to setting up an SMS. Here's a quick-and-dirty recap of Booth-Bourdeau's plan.
A show like Aviation Week's MRO conference is an ideal setting to gauge the buzz level of a topic like safety management systems. Right now -- in the U.S., at least -- SMS implementation is voluntary for operators and maintenance providers, and the benefits of a solid program are evident in financial statistics as well as safety and quality data. Sessions on comparable voluntary programs that target process improvement -- like Lean and Six Sigma -- typically draw huge, executive-level crowds at MRO.
