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.
Swiss International Airlines will likely end up with an equity stake in SR Technics (SRT) when the MRO giant is sold off by SAirGroup, Swiss CEO Andre Dose said. SAirGroup in mid-June was reviewing five bids for SRT. Dose would not discuss specifics, but he confirmed that each bidder had talked to Swiss about equity participation and the airline's recently struck deal with SRT. ``After all, we are their biggest customer,'' he said. SRT in late March won a deal to do maintenance on Swiss' 52 mainline aircraft, including Airbus A320s, A330s and A340s.
FAA, responding to concerns expressed by a group of American Airlines Airbus A300-600 pilots, said in late April that the visual inspections recommended by both Airbus and Boeing for checking composite vertical fins are sufficient for detecting damage that could compromise a plane's airworthiness. FAA's position, outlined in a letter signed by certification director John Hickey, is that composite structures are ``designed and certified with an appropriate, intended inspection method.''
FAA officials are confident that the agency's oft-maligned Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS) is evolving as expected and proving its value as a certification and oversight tool, despite admitted shortcomings and a critical report from the Department of Transportation's (DOT) watchdog. ATOS is fully functional at the 10 major U.S. passenger carriers (counting TWA as a separate certificate) and it is rolling it out slowly at the other 130 Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 121 carriers, according to FAA.
