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 immediate fallout from United Airlines Flight 328—the Boeing 777-200 that had one of its Pratt & Whitney 4077 engines fail and shower a Denver-area neighborhood with parts on Feb. 20—falls into three categories of varying complexity.
The FAA has set the end of 2025 as its target for updating the changed product rule, issuing revised guidance on determining pilot reaction times when evaluating failure scenarios, and developing a process to ensure its engineers know when manufacturers change system safety assessments during product certification.
Boeing failed to meet its obligations in five of 12 areas specified in a 2015 agreement with the FAA that required various safety and quality-control improvements in its Commercial Airplanes division and will pay $5.4 million in new penalties as a result, the FAA said Feb. 25.
