Sir Stuart Matthews, who earned a pilot license before he could drive a car and went on to lead Fokker Aircraft U.S.A. and later to head Flight Safety Foundation, died Oct. 13 in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, U.S. He was 88.
Matthews was president and CEO of the Foundation from 1994 until his retirement in 2006. He previously had been a member of the FSF Board of Governors since 1989 and chairman of the Board since 1991.
During his years with the Foundation, he was among the early advocates of a data-driven approach to identifying the major causes of accidents — specifically controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and approach and landing accidents — and developing guidelines for their prevention. The programs that resulted from those efforts, including the CFIT training aid and the Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Toolkit, have been credited with helping reduce the risk of these deadly accidents.
When he accepted Flight Safety Foundation’s top…
