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.
As the December holiday season approached, the principal organizations driving the cockpit security upgrade effort -- regulators, airframe makers, suppliers and operators -- were making measurable progress toward meeting the mandated April 2003 deadline for completing the work on U.S. aircraft.
Sikorsky Support Services Inc. (SSSI) is nearly two months into tearing down the first three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters tagged to serve as prototypes in a program that is expected to see more than 1,000 aircraft refurbished and upgraded by 2024. The three helicopters, two UH-60As and one UH-60L, are being disassembled and evaluated at SSSI's Troy, Ala., facility as part of a $219.7 million research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) contract the U.S. Army awarded Sikorsky in May.
U.S. carriers, under a government mandate to quickly make cockpit doors more secure while industry works on specifications for more durable, permanent retrofits, scrambled in October and November to install crossbars and deadbolts. Two airlines, however, opted for what their executives feel are longer-term approaches.
