Dr. Shawn Pruchnicki FRAeS ATP CFII, Human Factors Investigation & Education (HFIE)
7761 Tree Lake Blvd Powell, OH 43065
(614) 565-8795
Expert Witness Profile
Dr. Pruchnicki has extensive aviation experience in both flying for an airline, teaching others to fly at all levels and accident/incident investigations in conjunction with the NTSB's investigative procedure. During his time with a Delta connection carrier he flew the EMB-120 turboprop airliner and the CRJ (CL65) regional jet as a first officer and captain. He was qualified to fly the 50, 70, and 90 seat versions. He was ALPA's lead safety rep. on the ASAP committee and was later asked by former NTSB chairmen Robert Sumwalt to assume his role as the Director of Human Factors for ALPA national upon his departure for the NTSB. During this time, he worked countless industry projects and task-forces, help rewrite federal air regulations and advisory circulars in addition to co-chairing industry committees with FAA counterparts. He was in constant demand throughout the industry to help solve some of aviations most perplexing problems at the time.
After leaving the airline, the NASA Ames facility in California heard that Dr. Pruchnicki was no longer flying and invited him to work for them which he did for many years. He also worked with numerous other groups such CAMI and MITRE to name a few. Later he was hired to teach and perform research at The Ohio State University and later earned a PhD in Cognitive Engineering despite not having an undergraduate engineering degree. He was originally mentored by world class scientist such as David Woods and Sidney Dekker with whom he now perform research with regarding accident causation and safety science. He is still frequently asked by the FAA to help them with safety research. Dr. Pruchnicki is asked to travel the world and help many organizations outside of aviation investigate their accidents and try to reduce their accident/incident error rates.
As a result of his decades of safety work in aviation and numerous other safety related fields, he has participated in many litigation cases as an SME including high profile cases such as the George Floyd second-degree manslaughter case in Minnesota in 2022.
In April 2024, Dr. Pruchnicki was requested by the United States Senate to testify with several Boeing whistleblowers on the dangers of a poor safety culture with regard to the current Boeing safety problems. He provided the US Senate Committee extensive insight into safety culture dangers in aerospace manufacturing after his testimony while being questioned by the Senate Committee.
After leaving the airline, the NASA Ames facility in California heard that Dr. Pruchnicki was no longer flying and invited him to work for them which he did for many years. He also worked with numerous other groups such CAMI and MITRE to name a few. Later he was hired to teach and perform research at The Ohio State University and later earned a PhD in Cognitive Engineering despite not having an undergraduate engineering degree. He was originally mentored by world class scientist such as David Woods and Sidney Dekker with whom he now perform research with regarding accident causation and safety science. He is still frequently asked by the FAA to help them with safety research. Dr. Pruchnicki is asked to travel the world and help many organizations outside of aviation investigate their accidents and try to reduce their accident/incident error rates.
As a result of his decades of safety work in aviation and numerous other safety related fields, he has participated in many litigation cases as an SME including high profile cases such as the George Floyd second-degree manslaughter case in Minnesota in 2022.
In April 2024, Dr. Pruchnicki was requested by the United States Senate to testify with several Boeing whistleblowers on the dangers of a poor safety culture with regard to the current Boeing safety problems. He provided the US Senate Committee extensive insight into safety culture dangers in aerospace manufacturing after his testimony while being questioned by the Senate Committee.
Education & Licenses
Pharmacist, Masters in aviation safety. PhD in Cognitive Engineering. Airline Transport Pilot, Flight instructor basic, instrument, multi-engine. Jet type rated in CL65 airliner. Prof. Firefighter
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