AVIATION OWES NICK SABATINI A BIG THANKS
Today, aviation mourns the loss of an exceptional civil servant Nicholas Sabatini. The founder of JDA Aviation Safety Technology Solutions, Joseph DelBalzo, who worked with Nick for many years, highly endorsed his integrity, intelligence and work ethic. Included below are his obituary, a detailed interview and a PBS report. Of the three, the general public probably knows more about the third’s characterizations, not the first two.
Because of that imbalance and with some trepidation of addressing what is believed to be superficial analysis, this post will attempt to set balance this record.
Nick, most assuredly, heard the inspiring words of President John F. Kennedy in his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961 “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You”; for clearly, his career (see below) was entirely devoted to public service. That famous call by JFK has lost some of its potency as explained in these authoritative articles:
Revisiting JFK’s Call to Public Service 50 Years Later
“Ask Not”: The Shift in Public Service Since JFK’s Famous Appeal
Analysis: JFK’s words in today’s troubled times
A hearing, more accurately a hatchet job, unfairly assigned blame for something for which he was not directly responsible, in fact the actors worked for another person outside of the Aviation Safety Organization. Further examination of the hearing’s premise points to a program initiated by someone for whom Mr. Sabatini worked.
As the FAA’s senior most aviation safety executive, Nick was called to testify about an internal disagreement between local principal operations inspectors and their office management in Texas. The point of conflict was over interpretation of two recent policy initiatives:
- Voluntary Disclosure Report Program (VDRP)-a new approach to safety which prioritizes correcting errors rather than sanctioning human inadvertent mistakes. This element of the Safety Management System has been acclaimed as a major pillar to aviation’s recent monumentally successful safety record.
Contrary to the innuendos of that hearing, the decision of the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety led to an equaled record in US flying safety!!!
- The second target of the hearing was something then labeled as Customer Service Initiative (CSI). Excuse a moment of first person experience inserted here, the field-airline relationships at this time bordered on combative- the inspectors held all of the cards and played the “enforcement” process under what be characterized as house rules (see Las Vegas). Practitioners knew that some Flight Standards District Offices were unlikely to seek more official interpretation (region, lawyers or headquarters) before taking an obdurate position and the scattergram of the multiple offices showed that some were considerably more aggressive in their proposed sanctions.
- CSI was intended to instill more consistency among these offices. The application of the FARs should not have been so random.
- The “Customer Service” title was considered by the field as an insult. They did not like it and were likely to maladminister any CSI matter.
- Eventually, CSI became the Consistency and Standardization Initiative (CSI) and eventually Regulatory Consistency Communications Board
The new nomenclature was less problematic, and it has had some success.
The hearing UNFAIRLY BESMIRCHED Nick and a number of other FAA employees. VDRP was a well-designed, but then not well implemented program. Its long term addition to aviation safety has been globally proclaimed, for which Nick is due credit. SCI had greater bumps in this initiative but has straightened out. Not Nick’s idea to begin with.
What was the real consequence of the April 3, 2008, hearing. The derogatory quotes from the Members appeared to have been delivered to every FAA employee in the field. Many of these career employees felt empowered to ignore any manager’s direction. Subsequent policy changes from headquarters were drastically delayed and/or permanently ignored.
Aviation innovation has posed great challenges, necessitating new processes and policies for the rank and file FAA employees. The MANAGEMENT CHAIN, from 800 Independence to geographically distributed facilities, needs strength to deal with all of this disruption. NOT SURE IT EXISTS.
President Kennedy’s hope of attracting the best does not benefit from political shows.
February 2, 1936-November 27, 2024
Nicholas Sabatini, 88, of Alexandria Va., and West Palm Beach, Florida, formerly of Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, died peacefully surrounded by his family on Tuesday.
Nick’s life was defined by continuous service to his country and family and the field of AVIATION SAFETY.
Born in Vasto, Italy in 1936, Nick emigrated with his family to New York in 1938, at the age of two. He was the son of Gaetano Sabatini and Grazia (nee DiCicco) Sabatini. He was the youngest of four siblings, Angela (nee Sabatini) Gioia, Lucy Sabatini and Olga (nee Sabatini) Perillo. Nick was predeceased by his parents, siblings and his beloved wife of forty years, Virginia (nee Allen) Sabatini who passed in 2003.
His remarkable career of service began with the U.S. army where he served at Fort Knox, Kentucky from 1956-1958. After fulfilling his military duties, he joined the New York Police Department (NYPD) in August,1958. He transitioned to the mounted division in 1960, and later the prestigious Aviation Unit in 1966, where he served until his retirement in 1976.
Flying was Nick’s lifelong passion that would define much of his career. After his retirement from the NYPD, he would join U.S. Customs Drug Interdiction Air Unit in Brooklyn, before beginning a distinguished tenure with the FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA) in as an Operations Inspector in Charleston, West Virginia in 1978.
During his 30-year career with the FAA, Nick ascended through ranks earning prestigious titles in aviation safety. He served as Flight Standards Division Manager in New York before a promotion in March 2001 to Director Flight Standards in Washington, D.C. Later that year, he was appointed Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, overseeing 7000 FAA employees in addition to regulating over 7300 U.S. commercial airlines and operators. He would serve with distinction until his retirement in January 2009, proud of the team he was privileged to lead.
Nick’s contributions to aviation safety earned him numerous accolades, including Aviation Week and Space Technology Magazine’s Laurels Award. He served as an Aviation Safety Advisor to the Board of Directors for JetBlue Airways Corporation. He was also previously a member of the Auburn University Aviation Management Board and served on the Board of Directors for Advanced Navigation and Positioning Corporation, Wyvern Consulting, Ltd., and was elected as a member to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Board of Governors.
He earned Type Ratings in the Cessna Citation CE-500. Douglas DC-9, Embraer EMB-110 and Bell Helicopter BH-206 and logged more than 7000 flight hours during his aviation career and was a certified flight instructor in both fixed wing and rotorcraft.
One of the many fond memories Nick enjoyed came in December 2006, when he was invited to France to fly the A380, MSN 0004, the largest commercial aircraft in existence. He was one of only 135 pilots to do so at that time.
In 2018 he was honored at EAA Air Venture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with the Wright Brothers “Master Pilot Award”, recognizing his more than 50 years as a pilot. It is awarded for dedicated service, technical expertise, professionalism, and other outstanding contributions to aviation safety.
Nick is survived by his wife, Bonnie; his son, Stephen Sabatini, and his wife, Tammy (née Stieler), of West Palm Beach, Florida; and his son, Christopher Sabatini, and his wife, Teresa (née Ekroth), of Warwick, New York, along with his grandsons, Jake and Chase; and Bonnie’s daughter Alexandra Gavelek.
NICK’S LEGACY OF DEDICATION, SERVICE AND EXCELLENCE WILL BE CHERISHED BY HIS FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND AVIATION COMMUNITY HE SO PROFOUNDLY IMPACTED.
Nick Sabatini – Up Close and Personal
Great interview with Nick detailing his career.
“Critical Lapses in FAA Safety Oversight”
The regulatory relationship between the FAA and industry was the focus of a key Congressional hearing in April 2008, before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
The hearing featured the testimony of two FAA whistleblowers who detailed a “COZY” RELATIONSHIP between FAA management and Southwest Airlines that allowed the carrier to continue operating flights in violation of federal safety regulations. The hearing also raised serious questions about the FAA’s implementation of “PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS,” which have relied more and more on VOLUNTARY INDUSTRY COMPLIANCE AND SELF-REPORTING OF SAFETY VIOLATIONS.
NICK SABATINI, the former FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, tells FRONTLINE that the collaborative working relationship that has developed between the FAA and the airlines has been essential to identifying safety risks and is the reason “we have gotten to this phenomenal safety record.”
At the hearing, the Committee highlighted an FAA policy directive called the Customer Service Initiative (CSI), announced by then-FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey in a February 2003 speech. Blakey referred to the airlines as the “customers,” saying that part of the initiative was to establish regulatory consistency. “We want to know from our customers IF WE’RE NOT BEING CONSISTENT. We’re going to let them know that they have the right to ask for review on any inspector’s decision,” she said.
If that didn’t solve an airline’s complaint, the company could also “buck it up” to regulatory supervisors, regional managers, “or even to Washington, if necessary — with no fear of retribution,” Blakey said.
The CSI philosophy was on display in the case of Southwest Airlines, which in March 2007 notified the FAA that up to 100 of its aircraft were flying without adequate inspections for cracks in the fuselage. The company later revised its estimate to 47 but was allowed to continue operating the planes in direct violation of federal safety regulations. Several planes were ultimately found to have been flying with dangerous cracks.
Bobby Boutris and Doug Peters, both veteran FAA inspectors, testified at the April 2008 hearing that their repeated efforts to warn FAA management about maintenance and inspection deficiencies at Southwest had been ignored and that the carrier had effectively sought and received preferential treatment from “friendly” FAA managers.
Efforts to keep the whistleblowers quiet went beyond official rebukes from FAA supervisors. Boutris tells FRONTLINE that a week before he was set to testify before Congress about the problems inside the FAA, his wife received an anonymous package asking her how she would handle the “sudden death of your husband.”
“I guess they were trying to discourage me from testifying,” he says. “But, I believe in doing the right thing.”
Congressional investigators say the Southwest experience was far from unique. According to a committee memo, a “common complaint” from FAA safety inspectors was that “they found it difficult to bring enforcement action against airlines because ‘FAA management appeared to be too close to airline management.” The memo says the most common response from FAA inspectors was “I often don’t even bother [to bring action], because I know FAA management won’t do anything about it.”
