Christopher A. Hart | |
---|---|
13th Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board | |
In office April 26, 2014 –August 2017 | |
President | Barack Obama Donald Trump |
Preceded by | Deborah Hersman |
Succeeded by | Robert Sumwalt |
Personal details | |
Alma mater | Princeton University Harvard University |
Christopher A. Hart is an American lawyer,government official,and pilot. He served as the 13th chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. He served as Acting NTSB Chairman beginning April 26,2014, [1] and in June 2014 was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Chairman of the NTSB. [2] He was confirmed to serve as chairman on February 5,2015. [3] Robert Sumwalt succeeded him as chairman in August 2017.
Hart's great uncle,James Banning,was the first African-American to receive a pilot's license issued by the U.S. government in 1926. [4]
Hart is a licensed pilot with commercial,multi-engine,and instrument ratings.
Hart holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
From 1973 until joining the NTSB in 1990,Hart held a series of legal positions,mostly in the private sector. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association. [5]
He first served as a member of the NTSB from 1990 to 1993. After leaving the board,he served as deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,before moving to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1995. [6]
Immediately before returning to the board in 2009,Hart was deputy director for air traffic safety oversight at the FAA. He had been the FAA assistant administrator for system safety.
Hart was sworn in as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board on August 12,2009,and designated by President Obama for a two-year term as vice chairman of the board on August 18,2009. In August 2013,President Obama nominated him for a second term as board member and after Senate confirmation of his nomination,the President,in October 2013,designated him for a third term as vice chairman. He has served as acting NTSB chairman since April 26,2014,and in July 2014 was nominated by the President to serve as chairman of the NTSB. He served as chairman until August 2017,when he was succeeded by Robert Sumwalt.
After his tenure at the NTSB Hart continued his work in the safety industry,chairing Washington DC's Metro Safety Commission [7] and serving as a safety consultant for private companies such as Uber. [8]
Hart has been chosen to serve as the chairman of the FAA's Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR) team looking into the proposed fix for the Boeing 737 MAX groundings. [9]
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role,the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents,certain types of highway crashes,ship and marine accidents,pipeline incidents,bridge failures,and railroad accidents. The NTSB is also in charge of investigating cases of hazardous materials releases that occur during transportation. The agency is based in Washington,D.C. It has four regional offices,located in Anchorage,Alaska;Denver,Colorado;Ashburn,Virginia;and Seattle,Washington. The agency also operates a national training center at its Ashburn facility.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 was a scheduled passenger flight from Baltimore,Maryland,to Chicago,Illinois,continuing on to Salt Lake City,Utah,and then to Las Vegas,Nevada. On December 8,2005,the airplane slid off a runway at Chicago-Midway while landing in a snowstorm and crashed into automobile traffic,killing a six-year-old boy.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1455 was a scheduled passenger flight from McCarran International Airport,Las Vegas,Nevada,to Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport,Burbank,California,that overran the runway during landing on March 5,2000. The aircraft,a Boeing 737-3T5,registration N668SW,came to rest on a city street adjacent to a gas station. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the incident was due to the pilots attempting to land with excessive speed. They also found that the air traffic controller placed them in a position from which their only option was a go around. Two of the passengers were seriously injured,and there were many minor injuries. As a result of the incident,the airport installed an Engineered Materials Arrestor System at the east end of the incident runway. The aircraft was written off,making the incident the 10th hull loss of a Boeing 737-300. This was the first major accident in the airline's 29-year history.
David L. Calhoun is an American businessman who has been president and chief executive officer of Boeing since January 2020. He was previously Boeing's chairman and was appointed president and CEO after his predecessor Dennis Muilenburg was fired amidst safety concerns regarding the 737 MAX after two fatal crashes that claimed the lives of 346 passengers and crew on board.
Mark Victor Rosenker was an American aviation official who served as the 11th chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) from August 2006 through August 2008. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Chairman Rosenker was renominated by President Bush for a second term as chair and was going through the Senate confirmation process,which basically ended when President Obama was elected in November 2008. He served as acting chair starting in March 2005 to August 2006 and then again from August 2008 until his resignation from the board in August 2009,when he returned to private life. He died on September 26,2020,from brain cancer at the age of 73.
During the 1990s,a series of issues affecting the rudder of Boeing 737 passenger aircraft resulted in multiple incidents. In two separate accidents,pilots lost control of their aircraft due to a sudden and unexpected rudder movement,and the resulting crashes killed everyone on board,157 people in total. Similar rudder issues led to a temporary loss of control on at least one other Boeing 737 flight before the cause of the problem was ultimately identified.
USAir Flight 427 was a scheduled flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Palm Beach International Airport,Florida,with a stopover at Pittsburgh International Airport. On Thursday,September 8,1994,the Boeing 737 flying this route crashed in Hopewell Township,Pennsylvania while approaching Runway 28R at Pittsburgh,which was USAir's largest hub at the time.
On 22 December 2009,an American Airlines Boeing 737-800,operating American Airlines Flight 331 and carrying 148 passengers and six crew,overran runway 12 on landing at Kingston in poor weather. The plane continued on the ground outside the airport perimeter and broke apart on the beach,causing injuries.
Robert Llewellyn Sumwalt III is an American academic,aviator,government official and writer. He was a board member of the National Transportation Safety Board for over 15 years,from August 2006 to June 30,2021,serving as the agency's chairman from 2017 to 2021. He currently serves as the executive director of Embry-Riddle's Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety.
Deborah A.P. Hersman is a former board member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board who served as its 12th chairman. She completed two terms as chairman and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 16,2013,for a third term. On March 11,2014,she announced she would join the National Safety Council as its president and CEO. She is currently the chief safety officer at Waymo.
UPS Airlines Flight 1354 (5X1354/UPS1354) was a scheduled cargo flight from Louisville,Kentucky,to Birmingham,Alabama. On August 14,2013,the Airbus A300 flying the route crashed and burst into flames short of the runway on approach to Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport. Both pilots were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. They were the only people aboard the aircraft. It was the second fatal air crash for UPS Airlines.
On July 7,2017,an Airbus A320-211 operating as Air Canada Flight 759 was nearly involved in an accident at San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County,California,United States. The flight,which originated at Toronto Pearson International Airport,had been cleared by air traffic control to land on runway 28R and was on final approach to land on that runway;however,instead of lining up with the runway,the aircraft had lined up with the parallel taxiway,on which four fully loaded and fueled passenger airplanes were stopped awaiting takeoff clearance. The flight crew initiated a go-around prior to landing,after which it landed without further incident. The aircraft on the taxiway departed for their intended destinations without further incident. The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the Air Canada airplane descended to 59 feet (18 m) above the ground before it began its climb,and that it missed colliding with one of the aircraft on the taxiway by 14 feet (4.3 m).
Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was a Boeing 737-700 that experienced a contained engine failure in the left CFM56-7B engine after departing from New York–LaGuardia Airport en route to Dallas Love Field on April 17,2018. The engine cowl was broken in the failure and cowl fragments damaged the fuselage,shattering a cabin window and causing explosive depressurization of the aircraft. Other fragments caused damage to the wing. The crew carried out an emergency descent and diverted to Philadelphia International Airport. One passenger was partially ejected from the aircraft and sustained fatal injuries,while eight other passengers sustained minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged.
The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is a flight stabilizing feature developed by Boeing that became notorious for its role in two fatal accidents of the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019,which killed all 346 passengers and crew among both flights.
Stephen Marshall Dickson is an American former Air Force pilot and Delta Air Lines executive who served as the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration from August 2019 to March 2022.
The two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 which were similar in nature –both aircraft were newly delivered and crashed shortly after takeoff –and the subsequent groundings of the global 737 MAX fleet drew mixed reactions from multiple organizations. Boeing expressed its sympathy to the relatives of the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash victims,while simultaneously defending the aircraft against any faults and suggesting the pilots had insufficient training,until rebutted by evidence. After the 737 MAX fleet was globally grounded,starting in China with the Civil Aviation Administration of China the day after the second crash,Boeing provided several outdated return-to-service timelines,the earliest of which was "in the coming weeks" after the second crash. On October 11,2019,David L. Calhoun replaced Dennis Muilenburg as chairman of Boeing,then succeeded Muilenburg's role as chief executive officer in January 2020.
The Boeing 737 MAX was initially certified in 2017 by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Global regulators grounded the plane in 2019 following fatal crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Both crashes were linked to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS),a new automatic flight control feature. Investigations into both crashes determined that Boeing and the FAA favored cost-saving solutions,which ultimately produced a flawed design of the MCAS instead. The FAA's Organization Designation Authorization program,allowing manufacturers to act on its behalf,was also questioned for weakening its oversight of Boeing.
On February 20,2021,United Airlines Flight 328 (UA328/UAL328),a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Denver to Honolulu,suffered what was technically ruled a contained engine failure despite shedding large pieces of debris,approximately four minutes after takeoff from Denver International Airport (DEN). Parts departing from the engine cowling of the Boeing 777-222 aircraft resulted in a debris field at least 1 mile (1.6 km) long over suburban residential areas of Broomfield,Colorado. Falling debris was recorded by eyewitnesses using smartphone cameras and a dash cam. Debris fell through the roof of a private home and significantly damaged a parked vehicle.
Transair Flight 810 was a Boeing 737-200 converted freighter aircraft,owned and operated by Rhoades Aviation under the Transair trade name,on a short cargo flight en route from Honolulu International Airport to Kahului Airport on the neighboring Hawaiian island of Maui. Immediately after an early morning takeoff on July 2,2021,one of its two Pratt &Whitney JT8D turbofan engines faltered,and the first officer,who was flying the aircraft,reduced power to both. The two pilots—who were the only aircraft occupants—began executing the Engine Failure or Shutdown checklist,but became preoccupied with talking to air traffic control (ATC) and performing other flying tasks,and never reached the section of the checklist where the failing engine was to be positively identified and shut down. The captain assumed control but misidentified the failing engine,increased power to that engine,and did not increase power to the other,properly functioning engine. Convinced that neither engine was working properly and unable to maintain altitude with one engine faltering and the other idling,the pilots ditched off the coast of Oahu about 11 minutes into the flight.
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