FAA Safety Chief to Be Named Acting Leader
2 min read 
The Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday it selected its safety chief to lead the agency on an acting basis after the current administrator,
Steve Dickson,
steps down at the end of March.
Billy Nolen
has served as the FAA’s associate administrator for aviation safety since January after a career as an American Airlines pilot and industry executive focused on regulatory and safety matters. In his current role as the agency’s safety chief, Mr. Nolen oversees more than 7,600 FAA employees who focus on a range of flight-safety issues, including manufacturing and airline operations, the agency has said.
Billy Nolen, shown in 2015, currently oversees more than 7,600 FAA employees who focus on flight-safety issues.
Photo:
Business Wire/Associated Press
As acting FAA chief, Mr. Nolen will confront a host of aviation challenges, including maintaining airline safety as carriers increase operations to meet surging demand, approving deliveries of
Boeing Co.
’s 787 Dreamliner amid various production lapses and assisting Chinese authorities’ investigation of a recent crash of a U.S.-made plane in that country.
The FAA said Saturday the Biden administration is conducting a search for a nominee who would lead the agency on a permanent basis, a position that carries a five-year term and must be confirmed by the Senate.
The current administrator, Mr. Dickson, was appointed to the role by then-President
and confirmed by the Senate in 2019.
“Billy Nolen has extensive expertise in aviation,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
The FAA said the agency’s deputy administrator, Bradley Mims, will take on an expanded role during the interim period, focusing on workforce issues and airports.
Mr. Nolen, or whoever eventually wins Senate confirmation as FAA administrator, would take the controls of an air-safety agency trying to emerge from the aftermath of two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. The accidents, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, took 346 lives and prompted regulatory, congressional and criminal investigations.
The MAX crashes exposed breakdowns in how the FAA approved a flight-control system later blamed for sending the jets into fatal nosedives. The FAA has been working to implement a new law governing how regulators approve new aircraft as safe for passengers.
The agency also has initiatives under way related to electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, drones and space launches.
Mr. Nolen served tours of duty in the U.S. Army as an airplane and helicopter pilot and safety officer, in addition to his professional aviation experience, according to the FAA.
Mr. Dickson, the current administrator of the air-safety agency, is a pilot and former
Delta Air Lines Inc.
executive. In February, he said he would step down March 31, citing personal reasons for the planned departure.
Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com and Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com
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