On Friday, March 12, the management department welcomed former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Hon. Chris Hart. Hart virtually returned to Vaughn to take part in the spring speaker series by presenting the Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR) of the Boeing 737 MAX flight control system.

The Review was commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration as a direct consequence of their recognition in the aftermath of the two fatal accidents to Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft in Indonesia in October of 2018 and in Ethiopia in March of 2019, that the type certification process as applied to the flight control system of the 737 MAX-8 and MAX-9 was likely to have played a significant part in their causation.

The presentation gave insight into numerous test flights where simple human error may have resulted in unforeseen outcomes.  Hart offered safety alternatives for pilot training, which can be used prior to actual flights; such as improving simulation modules to include examples of human error.

Furthermore, Hon. Chris Hart offered valuable experience from his position as chair of the JATR and the need to incorporate fail-safe design principles that prioritize elimination or mitigation of hazards through design, minimizing reliance on pilot action as a primary means of risk mitigation.

At the conclusion of his presentation, Hart emphasized that there is a need to focus on human factors and human system integration throughout the certification process.