Honorable Robert L. Sumwalt

Honorable Robert L. Sumwalt

Robert L. Sumwalt was sworn in as the 37th Member of the National Transportation Safety Board in August 2006, whereupon President George W. Bush designated him as Vice Chairman of the Board for a two-year term. In November 2011, President Barack Obama reappointed Member Sumwalt to an additional five year term. His term of office as a Board Member will run until December 31, 2016.

Prior to coming to the Board, Mr. Sumwalt was Manager of Aviation for the SCANA Corporation, a Fortune 500 energy-based company.

Mr. Sumwalt was a pilot for 32 years, including 24 years as an airline pilot with Piedmont Airlines and then US Airways. He logged over 14,000 flight hours and earned type ratings in five aircraft.

Mr. Sumwalt worked on special assignment to the US Airways Flight Safety Department from 1997 to 2004, where he was involved in the development of numerous airline safety programs, and he served on the US Airways Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) Monitoring Team.

Mr. Sumwalt served as a member of the Air Line Pilots Association's (ALPA) Accident Investigation Board, and he chaired ALPA's Human Factors and Training Group. He was a co-founder of that organization's Critical Incident Response Program, which provides guidance to airline personnel involved in traumatic events such as accidents.

From 1991 to 1999, Mr. Sumwalt conducted aviation safety research as a consultant to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, studying various issues including flight crew performance, improving flight crew monitoring skills, and air carrier de-icing and anti-icing problems.

Mr. Sumwalt co-authored a book on aircraft accidents and has written extensively on aviation safety matters, having published over 85 articles and papers in aviation trade publications. Before joining the Board, he was a regular contributor to Professional Pilot magazine.

In 2003, Mr. Sumwalt joined the faculty of the University of Southern California's Aviation Safety and Security Program, where he was the primary human factors instructor.

In recognition of his contributions to the aviation industry, Mr. Sumwalt received the Flight Safety Foundation's Laura Taber Barbour Award in 2003 and ALPA's Air Safety Award in 2005. He is a 2009 inductee into the South Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame.

Since joining the Board, Member Sumwalt has served as the Chairman of the Board of Inquiry for the following NTSB public hearings and forums:

  • May 2011 - Truck and Bus Safety: A Decade of Progress
  • October 2010 – Fishing Vessel Safety Forum
  • February 2010 - collision of two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority trains near Fort Totten Station, Washington, DC, on June 22, 2009;
  • June 2009 - landing of U.S. Airways flight 1549, Airbus A320, N106US, in the Hudson River, near Weehawken, New Jersey, on January 15, 2009;
  • February 2009 - safety of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operations.

He has served as the Member on-scene for the following NTSB accident investigations:

  • April, 2011 - Southwest Airlines B737-300 rapid decompression and emergency landing due to fuselage crack in Yuma, Arizona;
  • September, 2010 – crash of a Freightliner Mid-Size tour bus on Interstate 270 in Bethesda, Maryland;
  • July, 2010 - collision involving a barge and an amphibious passenger vessel in the Delaware River, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
  • May, 2010 - collision between the Staten Island Ferry Andrew Barberi and the St. George terminal pier in Staten Island, New York;
  • September, 2009 - crash of an emergency medical services helicopter that claimed three lives in Georgetown, South Carolina;
  • June, 2009 - derailment of a CN train which resulted in the explosion and burning of several ethanol tank cars at a grade crossing in Rockford, Illinois;
  • December, 2008 - Continental Airlines flight 1404, a Boeing 737-500 that departed a runway during takeoff roll at the Denver International Airport, and caught fire;
  • November, 2007 - collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a standing Norfolk Southern freight train in Chicago, Illinois;
  • November, 2007 - rupture and explosion of a liquid propane pipeline in Carmichael, Mississippi;
  • July, 2007- crash of a twin-engine Cessna 310R airplane that impacted homes in a residential area in Sanford, Florida;
  • October, 2006 - derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in New Brighton, Pennsylvania;

He also accompanied the NTSB Go-Team to Lexington, Kentucky for the on-site investigation of the August 27, 2006 crash of Comair flight 5191.

Mr. Sumwalt is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.

Speeches and Testimony

Read Member Sumwalt's remarks concerning transportation safety >