A Letter From NTSB Aviation Safety Director
Professor: Bernadette Stockwell, Ph.D.
Student: John C Gibson
Semester: Fall 2022
A Letter From A Notable Person
National Transportation Safety Board
490 L'Enfant Plaza,
SW Washington, DC 20594
John C Gibson
Fox Hall 314,
177 Middlesex Street
Lowell, MA, 01854
National Transportation Safety Board
http://www.ntsb.gov
May 27, 2012
Dear Friend,
I am delighted to reply to you on the eve of my retirement from NTSB. I enjoyed being interviewed recently by news organizations. I talked to Tempa Bay Times reporters yesterday about my plans after NTSB career. But seeing a college freshman’s letter addressed to me is more than refreshing and unexpected. Your mail came from the School of Engineering at UMass, Lowell. I believe that you and I majored in the same subject for our bachelor’s degrees. I can only congratulate you on that. You have made an excellent choice. Only our colleagues can grasp the magnitude of the vast field of study. I see the parallel between your interest in building robots and my interest in building racing planes. We both try to push the limit of autonomous machines that seemingly have a life of their own. And, every time we try to reach the limit of equations, the equations break down. You know the experience.
Your query about your class’s documentary films has prompted me to enlist my biographical profile in IMDb’s database. It is an online database for filmmakers, and I am happy to give documentary testaments about the inner workings of NTSB. I was born in Enon, Ohio, on December 12, 1951, when World War II ended six years prior. It was the time of liberal civil aviation when P51D, “Mustang” fighters, were sold as personal passenger planes at a price close to a passenger car. There has not been a time like that ever since. When I grew up in Ohio, Lockheed Martin generously paid aeronautics engineers, so my family sent me to flight schools to obtain a commercial pilot license before I attended college. I never realized the pilot career, but I learned the basics of aeronautics, and the investment was well worth the risk. I attended Purdue University and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. I also earned an MBA degree from George Mason University. I worked in the private sector, including Pratt & Whitney Engines, for nine years from 1975 after graduation.
I purchased a 1930 Lockheed Altair for rebuilding when I was 32, in 1983. The model was very similar to Charles Lindbergh’s plane when he flew to China, piloting by himself. It was a practical transport vehicle and an endurance racer, and I learned a lot about safety from this racing plane. Engineers expect unexpected problems from the machines, and countless issues arise with speed and fatigue. Many mechanics worked on the Altair to fix all safety issues before it could break seven world records for speed and endurance during the 1930s. Charles Lindbergh was my hero in my adolescence. His plane took him to China to give aides during a humanitarian crisis of 1933. In the spirit of Charles Lindbergh, I volunteered to review safety recommendations for NTSB’s subcontractor in 1984.
It has been 20 years since I became a full investigator-in-charge at NTSB in 1992. The most rewarding experience for me is the conclusion of the re-design of Boeing 737’s tail servo. One of the worst crashes with the faulty servo claimed 132 lives in 1994 on USAir fight 427. The investigation identified the servo at fault in 1996 while thousands of Boeing 737 flights took to the sky yearly using backup workarounds devised by pilots. The public had long been waiting for Boeing to implement the proper redundancy fix when it published the new design drawing in 2008. It is a great relief to know that the victims didn’t lose their lives in vain. The most recent high-profile accident I investigated was USAir flight 1549 bird strike over LaGuardia and ditching in the Hudson River.
I have been preparing to write my memoir with NTSB recently, and I will be happy to share my political philosophy. I believe that engineering principles give technical insights beyond the mechanical world, including risk management and social engineering. In Plato’s Republic, Book(I), the fantastic Greek theatrical dialogs overwhelm the text's message. Many people theorize that rulers created the society in the best interest of the ruling class. In reality, the book's thesis is the exact opposite of what the theatrical rendition appears. It’s a play of irony. In the Greek play, Socrates proclaims that he is a descendant of the engineer Daedalus and that a leader's best interest is to ensure the well-being of the public and, together, the leader and the public benefit. Most people with a higher academic background can appreciate Socrates’ theory of well-being on a personal level at some point in their careers. Seeing the larger picture of technical insight and its interaction with society is very satisfying, and not everyone can say they have a very gratifying job.
I will have more leisure time to work on my hobby builds for the next few years, but it is only natural for an engineer to become an administrator and eventually join the people business. Two years ago, I proposed separately regulating the test tool manufacturing business from the aeronautics business itself. The proposal receives wide acceptance, but the regulation revision needs a few more years to complete. I plan to change my work to a consultant role in the test tool manufacturing business. The title may sound very formal and distant, but it is still an engineer’s position at its heart. I am just moving my lab and office close to home. All the drawings of Boeing 737’s parts are in the public agency domain, and the component certifications need outsourcing because no agency is ever large enough to handle the workload. NTSB’s aviation division does not give certifications of the components and stays as an independent agency; FAA issues component certifications and is more involved in the engineering aspect. I will interview new engineers for contractor companies. Utilizing the experiences I gained in NTSB, I can achieve broader goals because hiring personnel will have more far-reaching consequences than in my previous careers. I become the mentor, and my former self becomes the critical newcomer.
Thank you for contacting me. I have been away from academic societies for so long, but your letter allows me to reflect on my former years and thank the education community’s interest in supporting investigators. It helps with my memoir. Your letter reminds me to continue rebuilding my 1930 Lockheed Altair to stay sharp with technical know-how. The pleasure of engineering and work pressure on engineers persist for all ages, but luckily we are in a privileged time to train students in universities full-time without interruptions. If I can advise any engineering student, please never give up on your dreams. Stick to the engineering spirit - expect unexpected obstacles, both societal and technical, ahead of your generation. Try to balance career and family life. Stay healthy. Take time off from work once every few years to volunteer for the public, and see what life brings.
Sincerely yours, a friend.
Tom Haueter
Director, Aviation Safety Office
P.S. Don’t hesitate to contact me at this address if your department wants to film any documentary about NTSB.
Works Cited And Annotated Bibliography
OH&S , NTSB's Aviation Safety Office Director Retires, OHSOnline , https://ohsonline.com/articles/2012/06/01/ntsb-aviation-safety-office-director-retires.aspx , retrieved Oct 05, 2022.
This is a news column announcing Tom Haueter retiring from NTSB in 2012. It brings up the term “political sensitivity” about an engineer, which gives the impression that politics is part of the seemingly mundane task force. The article briefly summarizes Tom Haueter’s long career of 28 years in NTSB as required as a retirement announcement, but it also mentions Haueter’s former years in school as background information. The publisher is a trade news organization (Occupational Health & Safety). The writing style is informative and economical. The authorship is unknown except that it is an editor of the news organization. No source references. The article is ten years old and not very current in technology. The age of the article can be considered old in the tech industry, but the subject matter, a retirement event, has not changed since the event. It is unexpected to me for a mundane task organization such as NTSB to emphasize “politics” and maybe unexpected to other readers. So, I will use this article in my final report paper.
“Tom Haueter Biography.” IMDb, www.imdb.com/name/nm5038276/bio. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.
Tom Haueter’s birthday is shown on the web page. It shows Tom Haueter out in the open, allowing the film industry to contact him to give interviews, possibly for documentaries. The online page has links to privileged portals for accounts to access the “Industry Professional” section of the website for more detailed information about agencies of actors and personnel that the general public doesn’t have access to. The publisher is a trade media company. The writing style is tabular, not paragraphical. The authorship is unknown and not reliable because the content can change at any moment without source reference. Without date stamps, the currency of the page is not determined. Due to a lack of credentials, this page should not be used in a research paper. However, the page gives insights into Tom Haueter’s current status. If he is unwilling to give interviews, he must have requested the online database to remove his entry. The page also gives general insights into how the film industry operates in the Internet age.
Adair, Bill, This bureaucrat may have saved your life, Tempa Bay Times,
https://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/this-bureaucrat-may-have-saved-your-life/1232275/ , retrieved Oct 05, 2022.
This page is the report of Tom’s retirement interview. The article separates Tom Haueter’s career in NTSB into three sections, first as an airworthiness investigator, then promoted to investigator-in-charge, and finally to a directory. And it also revealed Tom’s earlier careers including obtaining a commercial pilot license before college and a degree in aeronautics and space engineering from Purdue University. The authorship is by a published expert on the infamous 1994 crash of Boeing 737, who wrote the book "The Mystery of Flight 427." The writing has expertise in the subject matter of aviation, and the writing style is informative. The publisher is well-known in Florida. Due to the expertise of the author, whose book was published by the prestigious Smithsonian Books, the online page should be used in a research paper. This article about Tom Haueter is more detailed than other news announcement articles. Moreover, the page gives insights into NTSB’s work ethics as its central thesis.
737 Rudder Enhancements. (2008, January 12). archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20080112190010/http://www.boeing.com/news/feature/737rudder/new-pcu.html
This is a drawing with a brief description of Boeing 737 redundant tail vertical stabilizer servo after the 2008 fix. The text description says that the previous servo has some reliable components that are retained, implicating that the new design is not a brand new design. It briefly describes the design principle of redundancy in one single sentence. The brief description also includes self-promotion by the author itself, which is Boeing company. The publisher is a non-profit organization with an org domain name, known for taking snapshots of websites. The author is purported to be the manufacturer of Boeing itself. The writing style is technical and economical, lacking context. The date of publication is 14 years old. It is hard to determine the history and origin of the components in the working drawing by looking at the drawing itself. The trade-promotion message in the text can not be reliably taken as facts. So, I can not use this source in the semester final report. Instead, another source of the same drawing will be needed as a cross-reference.
AviationPros, Tom Haueter Named Director of NTSB's Office of Aviation Safety, AviationPros,
https://www.aviationpros.com/home/press-release/10432653/tom-haueter-named-director-of-ntsbs-office-of-aviation-safety , retrieved Oct 05, 2022
This is a news column reporting that Tom Haueter is promoted from investigator to the director of aviation safety. It also shows his educational background credential, BS in mechanical engineering, and MBA, as expected as a promotion announcement. The webpage includes self-promoting and advertisement components. It gives an impression of an integrated community of aviation. The publisher is a trade organization. The writing style is authoritative. The authorship is unknown except that it is an editor in the news organization. No source reference is given. The date of the article is ten years old, but the subject matter has not changed much since publication. The exact date of a promotion of a federal employee may not be readily available to the general public. I will use the data in this article if no other sources about the same information can be found. The sense of community can be a focal point in the discussion of the features of different eras in recent US history.
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