New York, July 24, 2023, (BUSINESS WIRE) – JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) today announced the appointment of Susan Pfingstler to vice president, JetBlue University. In this role, Pfingstler will oversee the carrier’s award-winning training programs and facilities. She will report to Warren Christie, JetBlue’s head of safety, security, fleet operations and JetBlue University.
From locations in Orlando, New York and Salt Lake City, JetBlue University offers new hire and recurrent training for JetBlue’s airports, customer support (reservations), flight operations, inflight, system operations, and technical operations (maintenance) crewmembers, as well as pilot training services for a variety of other airlines around the world.
Pfingstler comes to JetBlue from United Airlines where she served as the managing director, network operations, air traffic control strategy. Previously, she held positions with the Federal Aviation Administration, the International Air Transport Association, and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. She spent the first decade of her career as a New York City-based pilot in both the corporate and Part 121 airline arenas.
Pfingstler holds a bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She is a Board Member of NASA’s Advisory Council Aeronautics Committee and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
OTTAWA
(Reuters) – As Boeing Co and global airlines work to restore public
confidence in the 737 MAX after two deadly crashes, they will have a
play book they can use.
This
is not the first time that Boeing has faced a crisis after launching a
new plane with innovative technology. In 1965, three Boeing 727-100
passenger jets crashed in less than three months in the United States
while coming into land, killing a total of 131 people.
Like
the 737 MAX, the three-engined 727 was billed as one of the most
advanced aircraft of its time. Boeing introduced the 727 in 1964 and
portrayed it as a more efficient alternative to the standard four-engine
jets of the day, with new features designed to make the 727 easier to
operate from short airfields.
The
727’s wing flap system, which provides extra lift at low speeds, was
unusually large and sophisticated, which allowed the plane to descend
more quickly than other rivals and avoid buildings and other obstacles
close to runways.
Investigators
looking into the crashes discovered that some pilots did not fully
understand the flap system and were therefore allowing the planes to
descend at too great a speed.
“There was nothing wrong with the airplane… (but) if you didn’t really pay a lot of attention to it you could build up an immense sink rate,” said Bill Waldock, a professor of safety science at the U.S-based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He uses the 727 accidents as part of a case study.
Aviation
authorities ordered more training for pilots but allowed the planes to
keep flying despite calls from some politicians to ground them.
Boeing made some modifications to the flight manual and to the procedures for flying the airplane on final approach.
In the case of the 737 MAX 8, Boeing is working on software and training updates. [L3N21C0FP]
Alan
Hoffman, a U.S. aviation historian and retired transportation lawyer
who has researched the 727 accidents, said given the publicity over the
recent crashes, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration would only
allow the 737 MAX 8 planes to fly again if the regulator is convinced
the fixes worked.
“The
airplane will go back into service and unless something else crops up
there will be no further problems and a year from now this will all be a
dim distant memory,” he predicted by phone from St Louis, Missouri.
Boeing was not immediately available for comment.
In
contrast to the swift grounding of the 737 MAX 8 after the recent
second accident, just two days after the third fatal 727 crash, in
November 1965, the Civil Aeronautics Board said there was no reason to
ground the plane.
“It
passed very rigid certification tests … before it was put into
service and nothing has turned up in our investigation to cause us to
doubt its stability,” the board said.
Those
words did not immediately reassure many travellers. Indeed, passengers
had started to boycott the airliner after the crashes began.
“For
a period of six months or so a lot of 727s were flying with half full
cabins,” Waldock said by phone from Prescott, Arizona. Still, the 727
crisis passed.
The
plane eventually became one of Boeing’s best sellers and was in
widespread use for another 30 years. By 2003, virtually all had been
retired as airlines moved away from the 727’s loud and thirsty engines.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Joe White and Cynthia Osterman)
