The White House announced Tuesday that it will nominate former airline pilot Stephen Dickson as the next head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Dickson, a retired Delta executive, would take the FAA leadership role as the agency faces challenges after the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 debacle. Under the direction of the agency, which governs U.S. airspace policies, the U.S. was the last of the countries where the aircraft was in use to ground the embattled Boeing model.
White House officials say that Dickson’s nomination has been in the works for months but was delayed after the Ethiopian Airlines disaster marked the second time in less than six months that a relatively new Boeing model crashed, killing all passengers on board.
The Trump administration initially resisted grounding the Boeing planes, with Trump taking a phone call with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg who assured the president of the planes’ safety. But after mounting pressure from airline flight attendant and pilot unions and the international aviation community, the Trump administration acquiesced.
Previous Administrator Michael Huerta, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, stepped down in 2018 at the end of his five-year term. Deputy Administrator Daniel Elwell has since served as the agency’s acting chief. Trump had initially suggested nominating John Dunkin, a former pilot who once worked as Trump’s corporate pilot, to widespread pushback.
