John Goglia To Be Inducted in 2025 Class of the National Aviation Hall of Fame

I met with the Honorable John Goglia, former NTSB Board member, at NBAA last week. He shared some good news with Greg Napert and me — he recently was informed he will be inducted in the 2025 class of the National Aviation Hall of Fame next September

This is a huge honor for John Goglia. It is an even bigger honor for aircraft maintenance professionals! To this day, John Goglia is the ONLY A&P mechanic to have served on the NTSB Board. In another first, John will be the first A&P mechanic to be inducted in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. There have been pilots who had their A&P certificate inducted in the past, but John will become the first A&P mechanic to be inducted next year.

I have had the privilege of knowing John for many years. I sat down with him at NBAA for an interview for an upcoming profile story in D.O.M. magazine. One of his character traits that is evident when talking to him is that he calls it like he sees it — and he hasn't been shy about sharing his opinions. That's a breath of fresh air in times when many people have agendas to push. Even though being appointed as a NTSB Board member is a political appointment, John somehow managed to avoid political pressures when investigating accidents (and he shares that there WAS pressure in many cases!). For John, it's always been about getting to the root causes in order to avoid future accidents and incidents.

John Goglia has also become a mentor to hundreds of A&P students. He takes time to talk to them each year at The Competition (the maintenance skills competition held annually in conjunction with MRO Americas), offering advice and promoting professionalism in our craft. The last day of NBAA this year was collegiate day, and I saw John taking time to talk to many A&P students that were attending the show. 

These days, you will likely see John being interviewed on TV networks whenever there is an aviation incident. In addition, he co-hosts the Flight Safety Detectives podcast with Greg Feith. They have a combined 100 years of aviation safety experience between them! If you enjoy listening to podcasts, you should give Flight Safety Detectives a try!

John Goglia's enshrinement will take place September 19, 2025 in Wichita, KS. For more information, you can visit nationalaviation.org/programs/enshrinement.

Thanks for reading!

Joe