Courses Taught

Aviation Safety Management Systems
(ASMS)

Personal Website

www.safeopsys.com

John Cox

Biography

Captain John Cox is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Safety Operating Systems LLC. He provides IOSA preparation, crisis management plans, media contacts and interviews, legal expert research and testimony, accident or incident investigation, and technical support to business/corporate flight operators and manufacturers.

Before founding Safety Operating Systems LLC, Captain Cox acted as Executive Air Safety Chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association International for three years. As the top safety official for ALPA - the world's largest non-governmental air safety organization - John oversaw six hundred air safety representatives and was the main point of contact between the ALPA safety structure, government, industry, and media on aviation safety matters. Captain Cox also served as Executive Air Safety Vice- Chairman, Central Air Safety Chairman, Central Air Safety Vice-Chairman, Regional Air Safety Chairman, Local Air Safety Committee Chairman, and a member of the Local Air Safety Committee for ALPA of U.S. Airways and Piedmont Airlines; a career beginning in August of 1986.

Captain Cox was instrumental in the US Air 427 crash investigation, working as an NTSB Systems Group Member. He was an NTSB Air Traffic Control Group Member for the US Air 1016 accident investigation and acted as an NTSB Systems and Structures Group Member for the US Air 1493 accident, tasked with documenting the precise accident sequence leading to the vital mapping of the accident overall. For both the US Air 405 and US Air 5050 accidents, Captain Cox acted as an NTSB Power Plant Group Member.

Between 1999 and 2004, John piloted the Airbus' A321, A320, and A319 - aircraft touted as being among the most advanced technologically in the world. Between 1986 and 1999, he flew the Boeing 737-200, 300, and 400 between North America, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Mexico. Mr. Cox acted as a test pilot and first officer between 1981 and 1983. He started his career as a pilot for Beechcraft King Air in 1973. Captain Cox has recorded roughly 14,000 hours of total flight time. Captain Cox received his Masters in Business Administration in Aviation Management in July 2010 from Daniel Webster College. He received the Aviation Safety Certificate from USC Aviation Safety & Security Program in 1996. Captain Cox received a postgraduate degree in Aviation Safety Command from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 1998. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a  Liveryman in the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. Captain John Cox was certified as a Master Air Pilot by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in October 2004 and received the Sir James Martin Award in May 2010. He is published in the Royal Aeronautical Society Specialist Document, and his most recent article is "Aeroplane Upset Recovery Training, History, Core Concepts & Mitigation." In 2023, he received the John K. Lauber Safety Award from the University Aviation Association.

He has been published extensively in the Airwaves, authors the "Ask the Captain" column for USA Today. He serves as the Aviation Analyst for NBC News and provides expertise to numerous other media outlets. He also frequently appears as an expert on the television programs Air Disasters and Why Planes Crash.