Lynne A. Osmus Takes Over For Bobby Sturgell

It's been nothing but small surprises here and there today, folks... not the least of which is the fact that an understated announcement by the President brought news that the FAA was coming under new management, as of January 16th... until further notice. According to some industry sources, the appointment comes as a bit of a surprise, since the current Acting Administrator, Bobby Sturgell, had not been reported as having submitted his resignation. Still; it was taken for granted that he would be stepping down at the end of the Bush Administration.
 
Lynne A. Osmus will take over for Bobby Sturgell effective January 16, 2009. Near the end of an announcement about President Bush's late appointments is the statement: "The President intends to designate Lynne A. Osmus, of Virginia, to be Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, to become effective January 16, 2009."

And that's all there is to that... for now.

Ms. Osmus is currently the FAA Assistant Administrator for Security and Hazardous Materials, a position she has had since July 1, 2003. She has been with the FAA since 1979, and an executive since 1990, primarily in the field of aviation security. She was appointed to be the Deputy Associate Administrator of FAA's Civil Aviation Security Program just three months prior to the 9/11 attacks and then led the FAA's transition of the security programs to the TSA.

More recently, Ms. Osmus was designated as the "transition executive" for the Obama Transition team. This reunited her with her old boss Jane Garvey, the former FAA Administrator under President Clinton, for whom Ms. Osmus was Chief of Staff. Ms. Garvey is a member of the Obama Transition team and had been previously mentioned as a possible nominee for Secretary of Transportation (though, unfortunately, not nominated for that august post).

FMI: www.faa.gov/about/key_officials/osmus/