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 Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) proposed upgrades to cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and digital flight data recorders (DFDRs) would give affected operators four years to put the more robust systems in their airplanes, while manufacturers would have to deliver planes or helicopters with the new equipment as early as two years from the rule's effective date.
FAA,despite fundamental disagreements with the methodology behind a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the designee program, is committed to sticking with the program and addressing concerns highlighted in the report, top agency officials said. FAA "will continue to depend very heavily on designees," Associate Administrator of Regulation and Certification Nick Sabatini told employees during a town hall-style meeting in January.
The fatal accident rate for U.S. Part 121 and scheduled Part 135 operations has been cut 71% since 1998, putting FAA ahead of schedule on its ambitious goal to shave the rate 80% by fiscal year 2007. As of Dec. 31, the end of the first quarter of FAA's FY 2005, the three-year average fatal accident rate was 0.015 per 100,000 departures. That's 71.3% below the baseline of 0.051, established in 1996.
