Hello and welcome to episode 248 of Avtalk.

I am Ian Petchenic and this is our year-end episode.

We're so grateful for everyone who has listened to the podcast this year.

It has been an adventurous and eventful year both good and bad and we had so much news to get through this year.

On this episode we'll take a look back as we always do at the end of the year. On this episode, we'll take a look back, as we always do at the end of the year, on a few of our favorite conversations from 2023.

First up, we have our conversation with former National Transportation Safety Board Chair Robert Sumwall.

We spoke with Sumwall on episode 216 as he prepared to participate in the FAA's independent

safety review team over the summer.

The review team's report came out just a few weeks ago and we've linked to that one in the

show notes.

Our conversation with Somal takes place before the team's efforts and we focus on aviation safety generally speaking, how things

were and are in the US and how we can improve those things. The Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration

are refocusing on improving aviation safety in the U.S.

With the FAA's acting administrator Billy Nolan recently saying that it's time to tighten the safety net.

And so with that in mind, we welcome someone who knows aviation safety like almost no other,

former National Transportation Safety Safety Safety Safety

of the Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety

at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, and now a member of the FAA's

newly formed Independent Safety review team, Robert

Sumwalt. Robert, thank you so very much for joining us today.

Ian, thank you so much. It's great to be with you. Thank you.

Thanks so much for joining. We've had a lot of interesting guests over the years, but I can safely say with no offense to anyone

...