Ex-SCANA exec joins national transportation board
Former SCANA Corp. executive Robert L. Sumwalt was sworn in today as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

His term of office will expire Dec. 31, 2011, according to a release from the agency .

His duties will include acting as a spokesman at accident sites for the agency and helping to determine probable cause in investigations, said Terry Williams, spokesman for the NTSB.

"He will basically be an advocate for travel safety."

Sumwalt also was designated by President Bush as the vice chairman of the board, a two-year term.

A University of South Carolina graduate, Sumwalt has an extensive history in aviation including more than 20 years as a commercial airline pilot with Piedmont Airlines and US Airways and as an accident investigator.

He has published more than 85 articles and papers in aviation trade publications.

Sumwalt participated in the NTSB's investigation of the crash of US Air flight 427 in 1994 near Aliquippa, Pa., and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada's investigation of the accident involving Swissair flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1998.

Since 2003, Sumwalt has been the primary human factors instructor at the University of Southern California's Aviation Safety and Security Program.

He received the Flight Safety Foundation's Laura Taber Barbour Award in 2003 and ALPA's Air Safety Award in 2004.

RICHLAND COUNTY


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