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.
Operators of 830 U.S.-registered Boeing aircraft built in the 1980s will have six years to replace or modify the airplanes' insulation blankets based on FAA proposal targeting a material in the blankets that no longer conforms to the agency's flammability standards. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), published April 4, targets blankets covered with Orcon Corp.'s Orcofilm AN-26. AN-26 is one of several materials used to cover blankets installed in Boeing aircraft in the 1980s.
FAA's budget-related resource crunch has forced the agency to slow work on certification-related applications so that it can carefully evaluate the costs associated with each project to determine when -- or if -- it can take on the work. "New applications for certification will be reviewed [at FAA headquarters] and will not be scheduled until sufficient resources can be found to complete the program," an FAA spokesperson confirmed. "This is likely to slow -- not stop -- the introduction of new safety products and new operators into the system."
Investigators probing the in-flight loss of a rudder from an Air Transat Airbus A310-300 have discovered little that would explain why the flight-control surface tore away from the plane's tailfin without warning. But data analyzed thus far has allowed investigators to conclude that there are few similarities between this incident and two others in which rudders played a key role, including the November 2001 crash of American Airlines Flight 587.
