CHIRP Trustees
Below is a list of all CHIRP Trustees. Click on a person to get a short bio and contact information (if available).
After the early career in the Ministry of Defence research establishments, Ken joined the Department for Transport’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in 1975 becoming the UK’s Chief Inspector of Air Accidents in September 1990. He also Chaired the Department for Transport’s Board of Transport Accident Investigation until his retirement in April 2005.
Ken is a Non-Executive Director of British Airways where he is Chairman of the Board Safety Review Committee. He also serves on the Company’s Audit Committee. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Flight Safety Foundation and a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University. In recent years he has been a member of Department of Health review bodies tasked with improving patient safety.
He has been involved with CHIRP since its inception in 1982. He was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees in October 2007.
Peter Cardy was born on the south coast of England, where at an early age he developed a lifelong interest in sailing and the sea. He studied for his first degree at Durham University and undertook an MSc at Cranfield Institute of Technology.He spent the first part of his career working in adult education in the east of England and the north of Scotland. For twenty years from 1987 he ran the UK’s major charities concerned with the dread diseases – motor neurone, multiple sclerosis and cancer.
He has written and lectured extensively on the management of these uniquely complicated bodies, with their devolved structures, large numbers of volunteers and small staff, and multiple goals of service improvement, research and policy change. He has been a member of many national and international professional bodies and foundations. In 2001 he was honoured with the Charcot medal of which fewer than a dozen have been awarded, all others to senior physicians.
In a change of direction Peter joined the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in March 2007. Peter Cardy remains idealistic about making the world a better place. He expects to utilise his experience of running complex, multi-functional organisations for the benefit of seafarers and the users of the seas of our island nation.
RAFVR 1952-53
RAF 1953-58 (included tour on 139 Sqdn - Canberras)
BEA/BA 1958-90
Co-pilot on Dakotas, Vanguards and Tridents
Captain on Viscount, Trident, B757 and B767
Training co-pilot, Training Captain and Training Standardisation Captain
Self employed Training Captain 1990-98
BA, BCal Flt Tng., Inter European, Ambassador, Airtours, Regionair, Sunways and Four Forces Aviation amongst others
GAPAN since 1965. Livery 1977
Member of Education & Training Committee since 1983, Chairman 1988-91
Master 1993-94
Set up Guild Pilot Aptitude Assessment Scheme 1995
Guild Award of Merit 2000
Air League and Air League Educational Trust since 1994
Training Adviser and member of the Youth in Aviation sub committee since 2000
CHIRP GA Advisory Board since 2000, Chairman 2000-04
Trustee since 2001
Air Transport Advisory Board since 2001, Chairman since 2004
Tiger Club
Member since 1957, Display flying, air racing etc
Instructor Course 1991
Currently CRI on tail draggers
de Havilland Moth Club
Member since 1992
Awarded the Air Supply Shield for Youth Enterprise 2004
Royal Aeronautical Society
Fellow 1998
Awarded the Flight Operations Silver Medal 2000
Conference involvement
IATA Training Conference, Miami 1979. Training ab initio pilots in BA.
RAeS CFIT Conference, 1994. The Training Captains View.
WATS Conference, Frankfurt, 2000. Pilot Selection.
David King is the United Kingdom’s Chief Inspector of Air Accidents and Head of the Department for Transport’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) based in Farnborough.
He served a multi-disciplinary apprenticeship with Hawker Siddeley Aviation (1963-70), in which he obtained an Upper Second Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He then worked in the Future Projects section with Hawker Siddeley on Harrier development and early Hawk configuration wind tunnel testing.
He joined the AAIB as an investigator in 1972 and was engaged in accident investigations throughout Europe, Africa, North, Central and South America. He also, as the Investigator-in-Charge, has been responsible for both the conduct of investigations into a number of large public transport accidents and the published reports. These include the BAC 1-11 windscreen loss, the August 1993 Airbus A320 ‘floating’ spoiler event and the February 1995 Boeing 737 double engine oil loss incident. All of these investigations focussed on and developed knowledge in the area of maintenance activity related Human Factors. The substance of these investigations have formed the core of presentation on Human Factors in engineering to ISASI, in North America and New Zealand and to a number of RAeS audiences.
He obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from The City University in 1991, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. In 1999 he was awarded the Honorary Degree of ‘Doctor of Engineering’ by Kingston University in recognition of more than 25 years contribution to aircraft accident investigation.
David is the President of the European Society of Air Safety Investigators (ESASI), a division of ISASI, a Trustee of CHIRP and Chairman of the CHIRP Maintenance Error Management Systems Review Board. He was recently appointed a visiting Professor of Cranfield University assigned to the School of Engineering.
He holds a current multi-engine Private Pilots Licence with an unrestricted Instrument rating.
David is married to Patricia with two sons.
Prior to joining the MAIB in 2002, he served in the Royal Navy. Specialising in navigation, he commanded six warships, including the amphibious ship HMS FEARLESS and the aircraft carrier HMS ILLUSTRIOUS. As a Rear Admiral, he was the Commander of UK Maritime Forces, the Royal Navy’s seagoing Admiral.
Nigel Palmer commenced his career at sea as a Cadet with BP Tanker Co. in 1967 and served on a variety of ship types before attaining command in 1984. He subsequently gained experience in a number of shore appointments before attending Business School in the UK and Japan in 1988.Seconded in 1991 to the Australian North West Shelf LNG Project in Japan and, in 1994, to Australia as General Manager of the LNG shipping company, returning in 1997 to BP Shipping in the UK to head up the Ship Operations Group with responsibility for the commercial, operational and technical management of the BP Fleet of 30+ Oil, Gas & Offshore vessels.
In August 2002 became Director, Group Marine Assurance with responsibility for the risk management activities of BP Shipping, including third party ship and terminal vetting, plus the wider LNG and Offshore Loading Projects of the BP Group. In January 2004 took up a new role as Director, Government & Industry with responsibility for the external interfaces of BP Shipping with the wider industry.
Following retirement from BP Shipping in August 2004 he continues to be involved in the shipping industry, and formed his own company in 2005 providing general industry marine advice.
Nigel has been Chairman of the Merchant Navy Training Board since 2000 and the Maritime Skills Alliance (which brings together the Merchant & Royal Navies, together with the Ports, Fishing and Leisure industries on maritime training issues) since its formation in 2004. He is also a member of the Sea Vision UK National Core Group.
He is Chairman of the Britannia P&I Club, and a non-exec Director of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA). He is a Trustee of the Marine Society & Sea Cadets, Slater Fund, CHIRP and the Shipwrecked Mariners Society and is also a member of the Board of Glasgow Nautical College.
Captain Palmer is a Younger Brother of Trinity House and was appointed OBE in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to the shipping industry.
He lives in Felixstowe, Suffolk and is married with three adult children. Hobbies include sailing and golf.
Tim Sindall has been a pilot throughout his working life, the last 20 of which were spent in the UK CAA developing policy on operational matters that included the Air Navigation Order, JAR-OPS 1 and 3, ICAO Annex 6 and PANS-OPS. To keep in touch with the operating environment in this period he flew with five UK public transport operators on aeroplanes that included Airbus A320 and A300-600. He is an Independent member of the Air Transport and Cabin Crew Advisory Boards, and he is a CHIRP Trustee.
Previously, he served at sea from Cadet to Chief Officer with Ellerman City Liners before coming ashore to a container consortium (including establishing a new commercial department). He became a Senior Consultant in shipping economics at LMIS, and latterly was a Director of Clarkson Research Studies.
He holds an MSc in Shipping, Trade, and Finance from the City University Business School, London and a Master’s Certificate of Competency (Foreign Going). He also served in the Royal Naval Reserve specialising in Mine Counter Measures and Naval Control of shipping.
