Boeing

▪️ Ombudsperson for over 1300 employees worldwide who have delegated responsibilities to act on behalf of the FAA.

▪️ Report to the company’s Chief Aerospace Safety Officer and the Aviation Safety Committee of the Board of Directors.

Vice President - Ombudsperson

▪️ Senior executive on the South Carolina leadership team with over ten years of strategic leadership for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner manufacturing and research operations in South Carolina.  

▪️ Lead lawyer for The Boeing Company's Chief Engineer, Boeing Engineering and Boeing's Confident Travel Initiative during the Covid pandemic. 

▪️ Lead counsel on all engineering and FAA regulatory and compliance matters for The Boeing Company.

Chief Counsel - Boeing Engineering, Regulatory & South Carolina Operations

▪️ Lead corporate counsel and trusted advisor for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner manufacturing and research operations in South Carolina. Partner with business operations since the inception of the SC site.  Strategic leader building highly successful legal team delivering impressive results with over 6500 employees and a capital investment of over $2 billion.  

▪️ Demonstrated achiever on fast paced, complex, major growth business plans and projects involving manufacturing operations, land acquisition, state and local government incentives, and labor and employment matters.

Chief Counsel - Boeing South Carolina

US Navy

▪️ Senior Military Officer in multiple command roles.  Naval Flight Officer completing 6 years active duty and 24 years in the Navy Reserve with three tours as a Commanding Officer.  Over 3000 hours in the P-3 Orion with a specialty of joint military operations, contingency planning and anti-submarine warfare.

▪️ Unique combination of operational, leadership, and legal expertise.  Simultaneously managed and excelled in both reserve officer and civilian career leadership roles.    

▪️ Chief of Staff of the Navy Reserve Policy Board. Three time recipient of the Legion of Merit Medal for exceptional performance and leadership.

Captain, Naval Flight Officer

Nelson Mullins

▪️ Leader of the Nelson Mullins Southeast Aviation Law Practice Group handling complex aviation litigation and federal regulatory matters. 

▪️ Built and managed a multi-million dollar law practice defending major air carriers and aviation manufacturers in high value claims and managing high visibility aviation cases in multiple state and federal jurisdictions.

▪️ Led a business-focused land use and zoning practice with expertise in major commercial project development and approval in fast growing municipalities and near major airports.

▪️ Successfully defended major air carriers and senior pilots in FAA enforcement actions and civil penalty cases.

Partner 

Delta Air Lines

▪️ Responsible for coordination of all insured passenger litigation and FAA/DOT/TSA regulatory compliance and enforcement issues.

▪️ Member of the Emergency Response Team and legal counsel for NTSB matters.

▪️ Operations Attorney during 9/11.

Chief Operations Attorney

Nelson Mullins/Haynsworth Marion McKay & Guerard

▪️ Associate litigation attorney handling clients such as CSX and Coca-Cola in all phases of litigation and discovery.

Associate Attorney

US Federal District Court - South Carolina

Prestigious two year judicial clerkship for federal judge in Charleston, South Carolina.

Federal Judicial Law Clerk

Senior executive lawyer and business expert with over 30 years of aviation operational experience. Now serving as an organizational ombudsperson. Unique legal career combining highly successful executive leadership roles in a national law firm, a major commercial air carrier, the world's leading aircraft manufacturer and as a senior Naval Officer. Demonstrated history of success in high-profile projects, crisis management, labor and employment strategy, dispute resolution, and complex regulatory matters.  Astute understanding of aviation business operations and how to leverage legal advice, risk management, and corporate strategy to further the business's strategic goals and operational success.

Landing on an aircraft carrier is no easy task. 

And not everyone can do it. It requires years of training, incredible coordination, and nerves of steel. 

And if at first you don’t succeed. . . . 

Here are some of my favorite photos of the carrier quals I observed during my week on the USS Abraham Lincoln. 

There were approximately 37 pilots up for qualification. 

About an hour after we left port in San Diego steaming south, the jets started flying out to the carrier. Screeching overhead and entering the break as they came around and landed on the deck with an explosive noise. 

And they just kept coming. One after another. 

They then began a series of nonstop day and night catapult launches and trap landings over four days, starting right after lunch and running until about 1 am. 

The pace of operations and the movement on the flight deck appeared rather frenetic, but were conducted safely with precision. 

F-18s, EF-18s, and F-35s being shot off all four catapults while others were landing catching the wires with their tail hooks on the side. 

One landing every few minutes. Three or four overhead in a left hand circle racetrack pattern lining up for their next landing and making sure their timing in the pattern was exact so as not to mess up the choreography of everyone else.

At the same time, aircraft were taxiing with their tail and nose hanging over the flight deck, their nose wheel within inches of the deck’s edge, and clearances of less than a foot from the wingtips of other jets. 

Nonstop. There was a beehive of activity of jets and personnel on the flight deck. 

And every landing was graded. 

Some of more senior pilots were headed back to a squadron after a period of shore duty. They had already completed a previous carrier deployment or two, but had not been in an operational squadron for several years. Been there, done that, but back to sharpen the sword. 

Many of the pilots were young men and women less than two years out of college who were landing the world’s most advanced fighter jets for the first time on a postage stamp size steel deck bobbing up and down in the Pacific Ocean. 

Over the four days of flight ops, the ship safely conducted over 500 launches and landings. 

Incredible. And I’m told this was a snail’s
pace compared to actual flight ops on a deployed aircraft carrier with a full Navy Air Wing on board. 

When it was all said and done, a few of the new pilots did not get qualified. 

The last day in the squadron Ready Room, as we were headed back to port, I asked one of the young pilots, “So what’s next for you?”

The pilot said, “Well, I’ll be coming back for another try.” 

“You’ll do just fine,” I said.

It was a stark reminder that not everyone makes it the first time. The “no quals” get some additional training and another chance. 

But some never will qualify.

Mark Fava

Vice President, Aviation Lawyer, Author, Speaker, Veteran Naval Flight Officer, Ombuds

What are the challenges of landing on an aircraft carrier?

What is the significance of flight ops on an aircraft carrier?

What is the history of USS Abraham Lincoln?

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My faith in the youth of our country was affirmed by my one week on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

There, young men and women were unified in their purpose and mission. Service above self. 

On this nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the average age of the sailors was 20. 

They were working long hours in challenging conditions, but no one was complaining. 

I talked to sailors on the flight deck, well below the water line in the fuels and weapons departments, in the arresting gear compartment, and at the hull at the bowels of this massive ship where I saw one of its four spinning shafts. 

In some spaces, I descended through a round hatch with little clearance for my waist girth. I had a sense of claustrophobia below the water line with thoughts of the Poseidon Adventure and the Titanic. 

In the fuel compartment, sailors were on watch insuring that the planes on the flight deck received the uncomtanminated fuel they needed from the 3 million gallons the ship stored. “Pilots can’t fly without us,” one said. 

The high pitch of the fuel pumps was deafening. The fuel lines and pumps were all painted purple. And the thick smell of JP-5 jet fuel was enough to make my shirt smell of it hours later. 

We went to the arresting gear area. There, when the aircraft landing on deck shook us below, the sailors were making sure the hundreds of yards of arresting gear cables wrapped around an intricate, yet antiquated looking series of large pulleys, provided the right tension to stop the jets on the deck. And the noise there was explosive. “Pilots can’t land without us,” one sailor told me. 

We visited one of many weapons magazine storage areas below decks where large payload of weapons would be safely stored during a deployment. “Pilots depend on us to get their mission done,” they said.

And the men and women in the “hot potato”fireproof foil suits on the flight deck were decked out head to toe in insulated silver fire protection gear the entire time planes were airborne. “How do you do that in the summer or at hot deployment sites?” I asked. 

“Sir, we sweat alot and it gets really hot,” the young man responded. 

Two young female petty officers were the leads in one of the electronic repair shops. You could feel their pride. “You going to make the next deployment?” I asked one, who reminded me of our daughters. 

“I don’t know sir. I am up for reenlistment soon, but I really miss my daughter,” she said. 

I met a young man on the flight deck from Mississippi like my parents. He was an unrated airman working the tie down chains and directing planes when they landed. 

He was hoping to become an electronics technician. “You going to make the next deployment?” I asked. “Yes sir, and I’m probably going to miss the birth of my first child, a little girl,” he said.

As our middle daughter just completed her sophomore year in college and masked youth on college campuses set up encampments, these sailors are the youth of America who give me hope for the future.

How can service above self benefit individuals and society?

How do arresting gear cables work on an aircraft carrier?

What is the history of the USS Abraham Lincoln?

Leaders are humble and engaging. I met Whiskers on the aircraft carrier last week. 

We were on board the USS Abraham Lincoln as the carrier worked with the west coast training squadron to get new and experienced pilots carrier qualed.  

During four days of intensive flight operations, they conducted over 500 day and night catapults and traps in the Pacific Ocean. 

I observed hundreds of them on the flight deck, from Vulture’s Row, at the Platform on the stern, and in the Tower with Air Boss. 

We got to hang out in their Ready Room as the pilots briefed and went out for their flights in the F/A-18 Hornet, the EF-18 Growler, and the F-35 Lightning. 

On the first day, I met a very engagimg Lieutenant Commander F-18 pilot. His callsign was Whiskers. We chatted for a short while. He welcomed us warmly even as a group of outsiders entering a usually closed group of naval aviators. 

Later that day, someone told me that Whiskers had just come off a tour of duty with the Blue Angels! 

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “He was a Blue Angel?!”

The next day I ran into him again. I realized  then that I had seen him with thousands of others at three different airshows during his year tenure as a Blue Angel.

His callsign is Whiskers because he was curious like a cat and asked alot of questions as a junior pilot. 

His name is Julius Bratton.  

He was inspired as a five year old when his dad took him to Tuskegee, Alabama for a fly in, and he got a ride in the back seat of a plane. 

This young man from Woodlawn, Tennessee pursued his passion, graduating from the Naval Academy in 2011 and getting his wings of gold two years later. 

As an F-18 pilot in his first squadron, he flew combat missions over Iraq and Syria off the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and then got selected as a Blue Angel. 

During his four year tour with the Blue Angels, Whiskers finished as the lead opposing solo. 

He’s the one who does the Knife Edge Pass and always knocks the socks off the crowd with the Sneak Pass screaming overhead from behind you. If you’re lucky, you see if before you hear it. 

I know it’s incoming, but it gets me every time! 

Last week, Whiskers was just one of the pilots in the Ready Room at the boat getting carrier qualed before heading to his squadron as a mid level officer for his Navy Department Head tour.

After his first night of carrier quals, we asked him the next day, “How did it go last night, Whiskers?” 

“Great, but I could have done a lot better. Today’s a new day,” he said with a big Whisker’s grin. 

“I gotta get a selfie with you for my daughters,” I said. 

“Of course. Let’s do it,” he said with a smile. 

Truth be told, that selfie was more for me than my daughters. 

That’s a humble and engaging leader.

After the trip, I emailed Whiskers and wished him well as he is now en route to his squadron. 

He replied “Thanks a bunch, Sir. It was great having you all around. It was good getting back to the boat. I feel like a Naval Aviator again.”

Back from an exhilarating week out at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Pacific Ocean. 

An incredible once in a lifetime experience! 

I’ll be sharing for the next few months some of my many learnings about teamwork, leadership, mission, and culture from an action packed week of observing how the ship was run during an intense week of day and night aircraft carrier landing qualifications. 

Ironically, while I was out at sea with the Navy, I received the pdf test layout of the first few chapters of my book: Lessons from the Admiral, Naval Wisdom and Sea Stories for Leaders. 

Seeing my words finally converted from a Word document that I have worked on for almost two years now on weekends, early in the morning, and late at night, to a pdf book document format was the most exciting aspect of my publishing experience so far! 

The purpose of reviewing the test layout is to approve all the book’s layout elements, essentially its look and feel, before the designer moves forward and lays out the remainder of the text. 

So, this weekend I am looking closely at the layout elements such as fonts and font sizes, chapter opening page styles, running header/footers, subhead styles, table of contents, and of course the cover and the dust jacket.

And the cover has turned out to be exactly what I had envisioned. I am pretty sure it will cause you to at least pick up the book, which is step one in attracting an interested reader. 

I’ll provide my input back to the publisher by late tonight. Then, the publisher will set the entire manuscript in the layout format for further review in the next 30 days. 

Finally, I’ll be emailing the test layout and entire manuscript to my list of leaders whom I will ask to consider providing me a testimonial blurb about their thoughts about the book potentially to be included on the back cover. 

Quite honestly, that’s a little nerve racking because it will be the first time I have shared the entire manuscript with many I respect and ask not only for their thoughts, but also for their support and a “blurb.”

We’ll see how that goes!

#flynavy #gonavy

What was the author's experience on the USS Abraham Lincoln?

What is the author's upcoming book about?

What is the purpose of reviewing the test layout of a book?

For me, airshows provide a great opportunity to relax and unwind. This time  with our youngest daughter.

Some of my favorite Boeing products were on display at the Charleston Air Show this weekend. 

👉The P-8 from VP-62 at Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. It holds a special place  in my heart as I served in that squadron for 14 years ultimately becoming its Commanding Officer from 2004 to 2005. 

While the squadron’s aircraft has changed from the proven P-3 Orion to the capable P-8 Poseidon, the yellow and blue Lima Tango Broadarrow tail feathers have remained the same. The many memories of that squadron and my shipmates run deep. 

👉The big and beautiful Boeing 747 Dreamlifter. Love seeing this graceful beast over the skies of CHS as it brings in wings from Japan, nose sections from Kansas, and midbody sections from Italy. 

The sections all come together to make the 787 Dreamliner in our Final Assembly Factory, where my office has been located for 14 years now since I started working for Boeing in 2010. 

👉The incredible C-17 Globemaster, stationed in CHS that can carry a payload of up to 164,900 pounds and land in 3,000 feet or less on a small unpaved or paved airfield day or night. 

The T-tail of this plane is adorned with the American flag, the South Carolina flag and my hometown of Charleston. The C-17 has been reliably delivering large equipment, tons of supplies, and millions of troops around the world since the 1990s. 

All three of these aircraft have worldwide reach and presence. 

And while the Navy Blue Angels remain my admittedly biased favorite, the USAF Thunderbirds put on one heck of a show!

What is the payload capacity of the C-17 Globemaster?

How does the 747 Dreamlifter transport airplane parts?

Right after 9/11, I had my toughest assignment ever as a lawyer. 

An in house counsel must know the business, be credible, and be a trusted business partner. 

It’s also your job to anticipate what’s coming.

9/11 was a shock. Those of us in the airline industry were numb. At that time over 20 years ago, I was Delta Air Line’s Chief Operations Attorney overseeing passenger litigation and regulatory matters.  

I had been on the job 41 days. I was a geo bachelor as my wife and 2 year old daughter were still in Charleston. 

That day, as the hijackings occurred, ATC directed all aircraft to land immediately. And for 3 days, not one airline flew in American air space. 

Airports were deafeningly silent. 

Days later, as I walked into my office adjacent to the ATL runways, I heard the birds singing in the trees for the first time. Gone was the non stop roar of jets taking off and landing. 

When flights resumed, I went on a trip to trace the steps of the 19 terrorists at all 4 airports from the parking lot, to the checkin counters, to the exact security screening checkpoints they used, to the departure gates where they boarded their flights. 

I learned the exact routes they walked and which airline contolled the security screening equipment and checkpoints. 

I did this even though no Delta aircraft were involved. 

Back then, private companies operated the screening checkpoints. No TSA. And each airport’s airlines shared the costs of the screeners through a separate contract. 

Delta had the primary contract at the checkpoint at Portland, Maine where terrorists Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari boarded Colgan Air Flight 5930, a 19-seat prop plane, to connect in Boston. 

At Boston Logan, Atta was screened at another checkpoint and boarded American Airlines Flight 11. He ultimately flew that plane into the North Tower. 

It remains a mystery why those two chose Portland for an origination point.

When flights resumed, I flew to Portland, then Newark, Boston, and Dulles - the departure points of the four hijacked aircraft. I was the only passenger on the plane out of Atlanta. The airports were empty. 

I walked the terrorists’ routes starting in the parking garages where they abandoned their rental cars. I asked who controlled the screening checkpoints. Some employees who had screened the terrorists were not back at work. Too shocked and feeling responsible, some never returned to work. 

Many years later, Delta was a defendant in the 9/11 litigation because of the air carrier joint screening contracts. 

The memory of walking those empty concourses at Boston, Newark, and Dulles is scorched in my mind along with the face of Mohammed Atta, who got on in Portland.

That’s when I learned a lesson from my boss that great in house lawyers know what’s coming and prepare for it.

The American flag flew proudly in spite of the horror of it all. 

I remember quite a lot about 9/11. 

In fact, I will never forget.

What impact did the 9/11 aftermath have on the airline industry?

What were the legal implications faced by airlines post-9/11?

In your career, when someone tells you “no,” you can get mad and sulk, or work on a plan to “yes.”

And that plan might take years. 

This one’s for lawyers, managers, and mid career military officers aspiring to reach a goal. 

When I left Delta Air Lines and returned home to a law firm in Charleston in 2004, I started building what would become a robust national aviation law practice. 

Relationships matter. 

As a litigator, I benefited significantly from my previous in house role and the other air carrier and aviation insurance lawyers whom I had met while at Delta. Many became my clients. 

For air carriers and general aviation businesses, there were not many other lawyers in the Carolinas or Georgia who had my level of recent aviation experience. They called me when there was a passenger injury or serious general aviation accident. 

In that market, I was competing with regional lawyers. 

It was not as easy building an FAA regulatory practice in a regional law firm located in the Charleston office. In that market, I was competing with big law DC firms.

But I finally got a call from a good friend who was an in house lawyer at a major air carrier. He was in their DC office and asked me my thoughts on handling a major FAA enforcement action for his air carrier. I told him “Of course, I can do that. I handled many enforcement cases when I was in house.” 

So I sent him the slick marketing brochure with my competitive “less than DC rates.” 

My buddy called me back. “This looks great. You are my top recommendation to the general counsel to handle this matter,” he said.

Yes! I was elated.

Until he called me the following Monday. 

“Mark, the general counsel wants a DC based lawyer admitted to practice in DC. I’m very sorry. I tried. And I know you are the probably the best one for this job, but he doesn’t want to hire you.”  

So here’s where the personal plan came in play. 

- My firm had a small, but very nice DC office. 

- I continued to write and speak on aviation matters at national events building an online presence and my personal brand. 

- I was already admitted to practice law in SC and Ga. So, I got admitted to practice law in DC.

- I updated my law firm website profile so it showed my DC Bar admission. 

- I flew up regularly to the DC office. I would leave CHS at 0500, land at Reagan National Airport, take the Metro to the firm’s DC office, and get to the office by 8am, before most arrived. 

- I attended the firm’s DC based marketing events. 

- I updated the firm’s website so it showed me resident in the CHS and the DC offices. 

- I stayed in touch with my in house friend and remained positive. 

Three years later, they hired me to represent them in an FAA enforcement action. 

Same general counsel. Same friend. Higher DC billable hour rates. 

I had taken it upon myself to change the narrative. 

But it took a plan, initiative, and years to get to “yes.”

It’s not all luck. 

Find a path to “yes” when you’re told “no.”

What impact can a personal plan have on career success?

What do I need to know about aviation law practice?

How can I handle an FAA enforcement action?

Do you trust your colleagues and teammates? 

I do. 

But that’s a critical part of corporate culture. 

I love this video because it displays the “I got you” signal. 

Naval officer aircraft carrier pilots taxi on the flight deck and are directed by yellow shirt enlisted lineman. 

These young men and women who don yellow vests and direct movements on the deck do so over many hours in a dangerous environment. 

Jets are landing, taxing, and being catapulted off simultaneously in a frenetic pace. 

The wingtip clearances to  other aircraft are within inches.

But what really surprised me was that the clearances of the nose wheel of the F-18 and F-35 jets to edge of the flight deck are also in inches. 

So if you are an F-18 pilot, a 19 year old kid in a yellow vest is telling you to come forward to the point that you are sitting in the cockpit and you are over the edge of the carrier deck and looking below at the ocean. 

Holy smokes. 

I saw a number of nugget pilots on their first carrier qual tap their brakes, and the yellow vest lineman give them the “I got you” hand signal for reassurance.

That’s trust. That’s credibility. 

That’s our US Navy. 

And that’s a bunch of volunteer 19 and 20 year olds - not on college campuses and without Ivy League degrees - making a real difference.

I’m betting on them.

How does teamwork contribute to organizational success?

When things don’t go as planned, be prepared and have an alternate plan. 

Carrier pilots do. 

This is a bolter. (Sound on). 

It’s an unsuccessful attempt by an F-35 Lightning pilot to catch one of the four wires on the flight deck and land late at night on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Pacific Ocean last week. 

It was pitch black that night with a cloud deck covering the stars and no visible horizon. 

To make matters a little worse, the seas were choppy, and the deck was bobbing up and down a few feet. 

I was observing night carrier quals from the side of the aircraft carrier’s island on Vulture’s Row. 

Every carrier pilot I’ve ever spoken to does not like nighttime carrier landings. Not a one. 

For some of the pilots on this night, it was their first time ever landing on a carrier at night. 

That’s why they were there. To get qualified. 

They land on the carrier at full power aiming to catch one of the four trap wires with their tailhooks. 

In spite of all their expertise and training, sometimes they don’t catch a wire and must in a fraction of a second commit to flying off the end of the deck into the darkness. 

Go around and try again shipmate! 

The sparks are the tailhook as it drags down the steel deck after missing the wires.

The smell alone was unique. A blast of a hot mixture of JP-5 fuel exhaust, smoking rubber, and the acrid smell of steel grinding on steel. 

My Pensacola flight school roommate became a carrier pilot. He saw this and told me: “I had more than my share of bolters. Always embarrassing, and to make matters worse, by the time you got out of your flight gear and went to the ready room, there would be a massive bolt hanging over your ready room chair! You couldn't wait until the next guy in your squadron boltered!”

Good ole Navy humor. 

Humor aside, though, I have all the respect in the world for a carrier pilot who bolters. They usually come right around and land on the next pass. 

At the end of the video, you can also see the flashing lights of another aircraft in the pattern. There were four of them in the pattern at the time. One landing and one launching every few minutes nonstop for five hours. 

Finally, note the closeness of the yellow shirts and green shirts to the landing aircraft and an EF-18 Growler with a pilot and backseat naval flight officer standing by on the side to prepare to line up for their catapult launch.

A bolter happens to the best of them. 

But the pilots are well trained and fully prepared which is the success story of a bolter.

What is the training process for carrier pilots?

What are the challenges of nighttime carrier landings?

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