John Goglia, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, spoke to a Saint Louis University audience Wednesday night about aviation safety and the threat of terrorism, as part of the Parks College Aviation Safety Lecture Series.
Goglia speaks at many universities and admits that he finds himself charged up and energized for the presentation.
“I really do think that I get more out of it than you guys do,” he said to an audience of more than 200 Parks College students.
Goglia’s visit is due to concerns of Americans about air travel after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The discussion was held at 7 p.m. in the Anheuser-Busch Auditorium in Cook Hall.
Goglia encouraged students to ask questions: “I want this to be a free flowing discussion.”
Goglia, the first mechanic to be named to the NTSB, has 30 years of aviation experience. The board was formed in 1967 and has five members.
“All five of us are equal,” Goglia said. “Our boss is the President of the United States.”
The board is responsible for investigating every civil aviation accident in the U.S. and making safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. “We go to accident sites and secure the scene with the help of the local police,” Goglia said.
He claims that since he has been on the NTSB since 1995, every flight accident he has seen is due to one thing: human error. “We’re only human. We’re going to make mistakes,” he said. “But we need to find a way to catch these mistakes.”
Parks College junior Matthew LeBlanc questioned any future safety measures to be placed in airplanes to avoid future acts of terrorism like those of Sept. 11. “What next? I mean they destroyed New York and Washington.”
Goglia was quick to respond. “They did not destroy us,” he said. “They just took a hit at our way of life.”
Goglia went on to address some solutions such as putting bars on the cockpit doors or cameras in the cockpit. “The cure is sometimes worse than the disease,” he said.
Goglia is considered a leading advocate regarding the evaluation of human factors in the aviation workplace. He developed a Maintenance Resource Management Program, which combines management, labor, regulatory agencies and academia into what has become the premier human factors program in aviation maintenance.
Goglia is an internationally known speaker and author addressing aviation safety issues, lecturing at world symposiums and serving as contributing editor to several industry periodicals.
At the end of the presentation, Charles Kirkpatrick, dean of Parks College, presented Goglia with the Vanguard trophy. Each year, the trophy is presented to a speaker for Parks College students benefiting aviation safety.
