Technical Feasibility of a Wheelchair Securement Concept for Airline Travel: A Preliminary Assessment (2021)

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137 Alan M. Jette (NAM) (Chair) is a professor and the dean emeritus at the Boston University Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. He also serves as a professor of rehabilitation sciences at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. He was a professor of health policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health from 2005 to 2017. He is an international expert on rehabilita- tion and a leader in developing patient-centered rehabilitation outcome measures in a range of challenging clinical areas such as work disability; post-acute care; spinal cord injury; and neurological, orthopedic, and geri- atric conditions. He has authored more than 250 publications in the reha- bilitation sciences field and served as a principal investigator for numerous studies funded by the National Institutes of Health; the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and several foundations. He has served as a member of more than a dozen National Academies boards and committees. He chaired the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that au- thored the 2007 report The Future of Disability in America. In addition to co-chairing the IOM Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence, he was the chair of the IOM Committee on the Use of Selected Assistive Products and Technologies in Eliminating or Reducing the Effects of Impairments. Dr. Jette has received numerous professional awards and honors, includ- ing the American Physical Therapy Association’s McMillan Award and the Foundation for Physical Therapy’s Charles M. Magistro Distinguished Ser- vice Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2013. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from the State University Appendix B Committee Biographical Information

138 WHEELCHAIR SECUREMENT CONCEPT FOR AIRLINE TRAVEL of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Michigan. Naomi Armenta is the principal planner in the Oakland, California, of- fice of Nelson\Nygaard, which is a transportation and mobility planning consultancy. Her expertise is in planning accessible transportation with a focus on people with disabilities, seniors, and equity issues. She served as the paratransit coordinator for the Alameda County Transportation Com- mission from 2006 to 2016. She has also worked on projects in Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties and for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and the California State Transportation Agency. She has been affiliated with Nelson\Nygaard for 15 years. Prior to starting her career in transportation, she worked in the field of human resources for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force Exchange Service, and the City College of San Francisco. She is the chair of the Bay Area Regional Mobility Management Group and is active in the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS). In 2014, she received the Bay Area WTS Rosa Parks Diversity in Leadership Award and the MTC Doris W. Kahn Accessible Transportation Award. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in anthropology and psychology, and a master’s degree in transportation management from the Mineta Transporta- tion Institute at San José State University. Peter W. Axelson is the founder and the director of research and develop- ment of Beneficial Designs, Inc., a rehabilitation engineering design firm that works toward universal access through research, design, and educa- tion. The company has developed a variety of technologies to improve seating and mobility systems for people who use wheelchairs, as well as design improvements for recreational and fitness equipment for people with mobility impairments. Beneficial Designs has guided the development of universal design standards for sidewalks, trails, ski areas, amusement parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor recreation environments. Mr. Axelson has served on the American Trails Board of Directors, standards committees for the Recreation Access Advisory Committee to the U.S. Access Board, and the Regulatory Negotiation Committee on Outdoor Developed Area Guidelines. He is the secretary of the Rehabilitation Engineering and As- sistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) Standards Commit- tee on Adaptive Ski Equipment and the RESNA Standards Committee on Wheelchairs. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation. He is a regular guest lecturer in the Per- spectives in Assistive Technology course at Stanford University. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and product design from Stanford University.

APPENDIX B 139 Rory A. Cooper is the assistant vice chancellor for research at the University of Pittsburgh and a Distinguished Professor and the FISA Foundation and Paralyzed Veterans of America Professor of Rehabilitation Engineering in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pitts- burgh. He holds appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is also an adjunct professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University (Robotics Institute) and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He is the founder, the director, and the chief executive officer of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) Human Engineer- ing Research Laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh and the senior research career scientist and the research center director for the VA. From 1997 to 2018, he served as the chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. His research has centered on the engineering, invention, design, evaluation, and transfer of assistive technologies, including wheelchairs, robotics, and smart devices. He has authored more than 375 peer-reviewed journal papers and 10 books in the field of rehabilitation science and engineering and holds more than 20 patents. Among his many honors, he has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Biomedical Engi- neering Society. He was a member of the National Academies Committee on the Use of Selected Assistive Products and Technologies in Eliminating or Reducing the Effects of Impairments. Dr. Cooper earned a B.S. and an M.S. in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Karen J. Erazo is the retired manager of legal affairs at Sun Country Air- lines, where she worked for 28 years, including as a customer service agent and a customer service manager. At Sun Country, she was responsible for ensuring compliance with several federal statutory and regulatory require- ments, including those from the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act and the Air Carrier Access Act. She responded to employee and passenger complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and investigated passenger claims for in- jury, loss, and harassment. She was responsible for establishing the airline’s policies and procedures for ensuring compliance with federal regulations on non-discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel, including responsibility for training employees on compliance. She led the develop- ment of the airline’s initial Critical Incident Response Plan program for flight attendants. As Sun Country’s representative, she attended U.S. DOT’s

140 WHEELCHAIR SECUREMENT CONCEPT FOR AIRLINE TRAVEL Access Advisory Committee for a 2016 negotiated rulemaking on accessible in-flight entertainment, lavatories, and the definition of service animals. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. Francis S. Heming, Jr., is an independent consultant specializing in the testing and certification of aircraft seating systems, including dynamic test planning, implementation, and witnessing. For nearly 25 years, he worked for Goodrich Interiors, retiring as the chief engineer for certifica- tion in 2015. While working for Goodrich Interiors, he served as the vice chair and the chair of the Society of Automotive Engineers Aircraft Seat Committee, which is responsible for the development of aircraft seat sys- tems design and performance standards in conformance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and international regulations. He is an FAA Designated Engineering Representative for aircraft seats and interior arrangements. Before joining Goodrich Interiors, he worked for 20 years at the U.S. Department of the Air Force, retiring as a program manager in 1990. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering mechanics from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a master’s degree in applied mechanics from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Kevin L. Hiatt is a safety practitioner who consults on the application of safety management systems in the transportation industry. He is a retired airline pilot and executive. He has more than 40 years of aviation industry experience, including in the areas of flight operations, safety and security, and environmental administration. From 2015 to 2017, he was the direc- tor of flight safety for JetBlue Airways, where he oversaw flight operational safety issues and aided in the development and implementation of the air- line’s safety management system. Prior to joining JetBlue, he served as the senior vice president of safety and flight operations for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), where he was responsible for six worldwide operational and safety divisions with more than 100 team members. Before joining IATA, he was the president and the chief executive officer of the Flight Safety Foundation, an international nonprofit organization that pro- vides independent expert safety guidance and resources for the aviation and aerospace industry. Prior to joining the Flight Safety Foundation, he was the vice president of safety and security at World Airways and worked for 26 years as a pilot for Delta Air Lines. He retired from Delta as a captain and the chief pilot for international operations. He is the recipient of several aviation safety awards, including the Flight Safety Foundation’s President’s Award, a Royal Aeronautical Society Fellow, and the SAFE Industry’s Gen- eral Spruance Award for outstanding safety education programs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in aviation from Purdue University.

APPENDIX B 141 Katharine M. Hunter-Zaworski is an associate professor in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University, where she also serves as the chair of the Subcommittee on Gerontology for the Center on Healthy Aging Research. Her area of expertise is in rehabilitation and transportation engineering for accessible transportation. From 2003 to 2014, she was the director of the National Center for Accessible Transpor- tation, and from 2003 to 2009, she was the director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Accessible Public Transportation. During her 40-year career, she has authored numerous journal papers and served as the principal investigator (PI) for dozens of studies on improving bus, rail, and airline accessibility for persons with disabilities; wheelchair se- curement and restraint in public transportation vehicles; and the barriers and safety risks for transportation-disadvantaged air travelers. She has consulted extensively on accessible transportation, including on projects for rail and transit systems in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Colum- bia and Canada. She has worked on making train and aircraft lavatories more accessible. She is an emeritus member of the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility, a member of the TRB Rail Rolling Stock and Motive Power Committee, and a past member of the TRB Airport Terminals and Ground Access Com- mittee. She was the PI for Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 171, Use of Mobility Devices on Paratransit Vehicles and Buses, and TCRP Report 189, Manual to Improve Rail Transit Safety at Plat- form/Train and Platform/Guideway Interfaces. She is currently the PI for the Airport Cooperative Research Program synthesis project on escalator falls. She earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, an M.S. in engineering science and mechanics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Oregon State University. George A. Lesieutre is the associate dean for research and graduate programs in the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. From 2004 to 2016, he served as a professor and the head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and from 2005 to 2018 he was the director of the Center for Acoustics and Vibration. His expertise is in aerospace structural dynamics and adaptive structures, and he is an instrument-rated private pi- lot. Prior to joining Penn State in 1989, he held positions at SPARTA, Rock- well Satellite Systems, Allison Gas Turbines, and the Argonne National Laboratory. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), which he has served in numerous capacities, includ- ing as the director-at-large; the chair for the Adaptive Structures Technical Committee; and the general chair for the AIAA Science and Technology Fo- rum (SciTech 2015), the world’s largest aerospace-focused conference. Dr.

142 WHEELCHAIR SECUREMENT CONCEPT FOR AIRLINE TRAVEL Lesieutre has received several awards, including the SPIE Lifetime Achieve- ment Award in Smart Structures and Materials (2020), the AIAA Struc- tural Dynamics and Materials Lecturer (2014), the AIAA Zarem Educator Award, and the AIAA Sustained Service Award, in addition to five national best paper awards from multiple engineering societies (AIAA, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Helicopter Society [known as the Vertical Flight Society], and the Institute of Noise Control Engineer- ing). He was a member of the Materials Panel of the National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration Technology Roadmap. He earned a B.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. Miriam A. Manary is the lead research engineer in the Biosciences Group of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). She has worked for UMTRI for more than 30 years, conducting research in the fields of wheelchair transportation safety, child passenger safety, oc- cupant protection, vehicle ergonomics, and occupant accommodation. She conducts and supervises sled-impact evaluations of child restraints, wheel- chairs, wheelchair securement systems, and wheelchair occupant restraint systems. In addition to her expertise in wheelchair transportation safety, she has extensive experience in the analysis of motor vehicle crashes, crash dummy design, injury criteria development, occupant anthropometry and posture qualification, engineering analysis of federal motor vehicle safety standards, child passenger safety, and the factors affecting child restraint installation errors. She is the chair of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) Committee on Wheelchairs and Transportation and led the 2012 and 2017 revisions of the RESNA Standards on Wheelchairs and Transportation. She has served as the head of the U.S. delegation for International Organization for Standard- ization (ISO) TC173/SC1/WG6 and has led the development efforts on ISO 7176-19 (Wheelchairs Used as Seats in Motor Vehicles) and ISO 10542-1 (Wheelchair Tiedowns and Occupant Restraint Systems). She also partici- pates in Society of Automotive Engineers and ISO committees focused on child restraints. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Tulane University and a master’s degree in bioengineering from the University of Michigan. Clinton V. Oster, Jr., is a professor emeritus and the former associate dean for the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. His research has centered on aviation safety, airline economics and competition policy, energy policy, and environmental and natural resource policy. He has co-authored five books on various aspects of

APPENDIX B 143 air transportation, including Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Pas- senger Travel with John Meyer, and Why Airplanes Crash with John Strong and C. Kurt Zorn. He has chaired and served on numerous National Acad- emies committees, including as the chair of the Committee for the Study of Traffic Safety Lessons from Benchmark Nations, the chair of the Committee on the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, the chair of the Committee on the Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue, and the co-chair of the Committee on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s National Aviation Operational Monitoring Service Project. He was a member of the Commit- tee for Guidance on Setting and Enforcing Speed Limits, the Committee for a Study on Air Passenger Service and Safety Since Deregulation, and the Committee on the Intercity Passenger Travel: Opportunities and Issues in Short-Haul Markets. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Princeton University, a master’s degree in public affairs from Carnegie Mel- lon University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Gary M. Weissel is the founder and the managing officer of Tronos Aviation Consulting, which provides a wide variety of services to airlines, leasing companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and suppliers in the aviation industry, including services pertaining to aircraft interiors and modifications and conversions. In this position, he leads all of the firm’s activities, including asset management, aircraft specification and interior management, market forecasting, and OEM strategy consulting. Prior to starting Tronos, he was the co-managing officer of aviation and aero- space practice at ICF International’s Simat, Hellisen and Eichner, Inc. (ICF SH&E), known since 2014 as ICF Aviation, where he led the firm’s staff of more than 50 consultants in 7 offices worldwide. Before joining ICF SH&E, he was a senior program manager with B/E Aerospace’s Seating Products Group, where he ran numerous seating programs for major international airlines. Prior to that, he spent 9 years with Delta Air Lines in various posi- tions within its engineering and technical specification departments. He is a member of the Senior Advisory Board and a guest lecturer for the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Aerospace Engineering. He was the lead author for the International Air Transport Association’s Best Practices Guide for cabin interior retrofits and entry into service programs. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, is regularly quoted in industry publications, and has appeared on CNN and NBC Nightly News as an aviation expert. He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.