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.
True high-speed inflight Internet for passengers is in its infancy, but LiveTV is betting it will soon be taken for granted, and is laying the groundwork for a major shift in how airlines leverage aircraft connectivity. LiveTV’s K a-band inflight Wi-Fi offering rolled out last year when launch customer and LiveTV owner JetBlue Airways launched its FlyFi service. The results—scores of passengers streaming media and (on the media demo flight, at least) video chatting—stand in sharp contrast to those of the competition.
Boeing suppliers are developing “a sense of acceptance” that the manufacturer’s push for a 15% reduction in supply chain costs won’t ease up even as the economy improves, an informal survey of several major suppliers by Canaccord Genuity finds. Whether the push will succeed remains to be seen.
Inadequate regulatory oversight was the most common contributor to fatal air transport accidents from 2009-13, and among the most cited factors in all accidents, an International Air Transport Association (IATA) analysis reveals. IATA examined 432 qualifying accidents in the five-year period, including 94 with fatalities, and broke down the causal factors in each accident sequence. It then categorized the factors into five broad categories: Latent conditions, (external) threats, flight crew errors, undesired aircraft states, and countermeasures.
