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With aviation in the news, Florida Tech's Shem Malmquist offers insight and clarity

Shem Malmquist is a 'go-to' expert when it comes to covering the airline industry

Mar 16, 2025

2 min

Shem Malmquist

Recent news on the safety of airlines in America has detailed tragic fatalities, airplanes flipping over and some crashing into prominent city streets, which has shone a less than flattering light on what is supposed to be a safe industry.


Given recent events, Florida Tech College of Aeronautics visiting assistant professor Shem Malmquist has appeared in high-profile interviews on both current and historic aviation incidents.



Recently, he spoke with the Boston Globe, Rolling Stone and the news platform FedScoop to lend his insight and expertise as a pilot.



Officials have repeatedly warned about a shortage of air traffic controllers. Pilots have made up for that gap by accepting visual approaches and separation from other airplanes to relieve some of the workloads off controllers, said Shem Malmquist, a pilot and visiting instructor at the Florida Institute of Technology, who teaches courses on aviation safety. He noted that was “part of the problem” with the D.C. collision. Still, flying remains safe because “pilots are overcoming the challenges in the system to prevent accidents,” Malmquist said. “Random distribution can create clusters like this. ... That doesn’t mean there’s more risk.”  February 21 - Boston Globe



One former pilot told FedScoop that the system can be overpopulated with notices, only some of which might be important for a pilot to understand before taking off. Still, there’s generally no automated way of sorting through these notices, which means they can be incredibly long and difficult to completely process before flights.

The notices themselves are densely written and use terminology that is often not immediately discernible. An example provided by the FAA shows the notices’ unique format.

Textual data can also limit the ability to modernize the NOTAM system, an FAA statement of objectives from 2023 noted.

Shem Malmquist, a working pilot who also teaches at Florida Tech’s College of Aeronautics, said the entire NOTAM system “migrated from color pipe machines,” which locked in “certain abbreviations and codes” beyond their point of usefulness.

“It’s really great for computers, which is kind of funny because it was created before computers,” Malmquist added. “But it’s … not really very user friendly for the way humans think.” February 21 -FedScoop




Recently, Malmquist was featured on National Geographic's TV series, "Air Crash Investigation." There, he spoke about the China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 crash investigation from 1993.




Looking to connect with Shem Malmquist regarding the airline industry?


He's available. Click on his icon to arrange an interview today.

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Shem Malmquist

Shem Malmquist

Instructor | College of Aeronautics

Shem Malmquist is an international Boeing 777 captain and experienced accident and safety investigator.

Aircraft OperationsAccident InvestigationSystem Safety EngineeringSafety Analysis

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