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.
FAA mandated flap bolt checks on all types of 747s, giving operators 18 months to swap bolts made of steel with hardware fabricated from a nickel alloy. The airworthiness directive (AD 2001-03-10) gives 747 operators until Sept. 28, 2002, to check flap transmission bolts, and replace bolts made of H-11 steel with bolts made from Inconel, which is more resistant to corrosion.
As the deadline approached requiring regulators to take the next step in the rulemaking process, industry associations lobbied hard to get an all-new rewrite proposal of FAR Part 145 rather than a final version of the June 1999 proposal that drew significant industry outcry.
A confusing and potentially costly rule ordering changes to how operators file service difficulty reports (SDR) hasn't been made any clearer by guidance material published by the agency, several industry representatives said. FAA recently published a 41-page advisory circular intended to clarify the new SDR rule, which was supposed to go into effect this past January. But public protest over the rule convinced FAA to push the effective date back six months.
