areas of expertise
Cabin Safety Expertise
Child passenger safety assistance
AVIATION INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Cabin Safety addresses all activities that cabin crew must accomplish to maintain safety and security in the cabin before, during, and after flight. These cabin safety activities contribute to the safe, secure, effective, and efficient aircraft operations in normal, abnormal, and emergency situations. Aviation Business Consulting can help your legal or operations team with matters such as:
- Accidents/incidents involving injuries or fatalities in the cabin: For example, events during turbulence, aircraft evacuations, or fires.
- Cases involving regulatory violations: Such as non-compliance with safety regulations or improper procedures during emergencies.
- Disputes over passenger conduct: Including disruptive or unruly passengers and the handling of such situations.
- Cases involving aircraft design or equipment issues: Specifically related to cabin safety features or emergency equipment.
Expert Witness
- Cabin Safety Procedures
- Aircraft Equipment and Systems
- FAA Regulations & Industry Standards
- Human Factors
- Accident Investigation
- Training & Qualification Requirements
- Disruptive Passenger Events
Policy Integration
- Regulations and Standards
- Cabin Design
- Safety Equipment
- Crew Training
- Passenger Compliance
- Technology Integration
- Safety Management Systems
- Contract Negotiations
AVIATION INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Child passenger safety assistance
AVIATION INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Our Managing Director/Cabin Safety has extensive knowledge and experience with 14 CFR parts 25, 91, 121,125, and 135 pertaining to flight attendants, cabin crew, and aircraft certification standards applicable to cabin safety and survivability. She also has extensive knowledge and working experience with part 382, which implements DOT’s Air Carrier Access Act. She is highly respected for her knowledge and dedication toward aviation safety, and specifically cabin safety and child safety.
Our team has held executive positions with domestic and international airlines, consulting groups, manufacturers, and various agencies within the federal government in support of internal and external aviation stakeholder communities to ensure their safe global operations.
Members of Aviation Business Consulting have held key roles in start-up airline operations, to include aircraft purchase agreements, initial training program approvals, and certification.
Child passenger safety assistance
Child passenger safety assistance
Child passenger safety assistance
Aviation Business Consulting's Managing Director/Cabin Safety is a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST), which is a professional who educates parents and caregivers on the proper use and installation of car seats and booster seats. She helps ensure children are safely secured in vehicles to minimize the risk of injury in accidents. Her aviation expertise provides her with the knowledge and experience to answer questions caregivers have about using an approved restraint device on an airplane.
Certification: Underwent a rigorous training program, passing written and practical exams to earn my certification.
Education: Able to provide personalized instruction on how to install car seats correctly, secure children in the seats, and determine when it's time to transition to a different type of restraint. As an aviation expert, can discuss the safest way to travel in an airplane with your child.
Community Involvement: Participates in community events like car seat checkup events, which offer hands-on assistance and education to families.
Currency: Required to maintain certification through continuing education, staying up-to-date on the latest safety recommendations and recalls, and conducting a minimum number of valid child safety seat checks in our community.
Resources: Serves as a valuable resource for parents and caregivers, offering guidance on selecting the right car seat, understanding local laws, and troubleshooting any issues with car seat installation.
Special Needs: Able to answer questions about disability accommodations in vehicles and on aircraft. Can help caregivers determine the best restraint device to use, which includes assisting with petitions to the FAA for regulatory relief to ensure CRS users can safely travel in accordance with current DOT and FAA regulations.
Affiliations
Leadership
CATHERINE Burnett - managing director/Cabin Safety
Catherine Burnett recently launched Aviation Business Consulting (ABC) to support the aviation community with Cabin Safety expertise. Catherine is a well respected expert in cabin safety, with documented success in the aviation industry at various organizational levels. She spent 40 years attaining progressive responsibilities at several commercial air carriers and for the Federal government. Until her retirement in May 2025, Catherine was the senior Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI)/Cabin Safety subject matter expert for the Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) policy division. Her expertise includes Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) parts 25, 91, 121, 125, 135, 142, and 382, which implements DOT’s Air Carrier Access Act.
Her ASI/CS role included developing and implementing policies, standards, programs, and procedures governing the certification, inspection, surveillance, and operation of air carriers and crewmembers. She participated in national and international working groups and panels with other organizational elements of the FAA, and other government agencies and industry representatives, for the purpose of resolving complex and controversial problems having a direct influence on the safety of commercial aviation operations. As an expert in the regulatory division, Catherine conducted meetings with representatives of other government agencies, the aviation industry, aviation organizations, state, municipal, and foreign governments, and she spearheaded teams to develop operational policies, including advisory circulars, ASI guidance, and training standards. She lead several teams and served as a subject matter expert on several rulemaking projects that resulted in new or amended regulations. She oversaw the division’s process that evaluated 14 CFR part 11 requests for exemption from regulations applicable to cabin safety submitted by individuals, air carriers, and aviation associations. She helped implement and then managed the FAA’s process for evaluating requests for exemption for passengers with disabilities and developed the agency’s “Use of Restraint Systems on Aircraft by Individuals with Disabilities Resource Guide.”
Catherine served as the Cabin co-chair for the FAA’s Aviation Safety InfoShare, and she was a member of DOT’s Advisory Committee of Human Trafficking and DOT’s Advisory Committee on Accessible Air Transportation. She also supported the DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee (ACPAC) Anti- Discrimination Subcommittee. Her passion for safety has included making presentations at industry events and sponsoring studies that direct policy. For instance, Catherine, along with agency colleagues, developed a communications outreach plan for parents and caregivers to increase the use of CRSs on airplanes, the goal of which was to create conversations about child safety on airplanes by connecting with parents and caregivers using simple, engaging visual assets through digital and news media, with a focus on travel and child safety influencers and organizations, as well as the FAA’s established partners.
The team's outreach efforts included:
- Engagement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transportation Security Administration, airports throughout the nation, and other stakeholders;
- Engagement with parenting and travel social media influencers;
- Development of partnerships and stories to reach parents where they get safety and travel information;
- Engagement with parents across social media platforms to answer their questions about traveling with children in CRS;
- Development and promotion of the FAA blog and podcast content.
In 2024, then-U.S. DOT Secretary Buttigieg presented the “Partnering for Excellence” Award to Inspector Burnett and other colleagues who made up the “Family Travel Team.” She received the FAA’s 2023 “Commitment to People” award in recognition of her sustained dedication and significant contribution to the FAA mission. She led the Child Restraint Systems Team that received the 2021 Regional Administrator’s Award for “Team Excellence.” In 2019, the FAA bestowed upon Inspector Burnett its “Aviation Safety Innovation Award” for her work that increased the knowledge about and use of child restraint systems on aircraft.
Catherine began her aviation career at America West Airlines, one of the first airlines to use extensive "cross-utilization", in which employees were trained in a variety of airline jobs. As a Customer Service Representative, she received training in reservations; ticket counter and gate procedures; ramp, commissary, and dispatch operations; and inflight responsibilities. She was qualified to work on Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft; Boeing 737, 747, and 757 aircraft; and DeHavilland DH-8 aircraft. She then held roles as an Inflight Training Instructor, Manager of Inflight Policies and Procedures, and Director of Inflight, where she supervised an operations team of 35 management/support staff and more than 2,700 flight attendants operating from three bases.
Following the events of 9/11, she was hired at the FAA’s Phoenix Certificate Management Office as an Aviation Security Inspector, where she oversaw the transfer from private oversight to Federal responsibilities of baggage and passenger screening checkpoints and security procedures. After federalization, she transitioned to the Transportation Security Administration as the Phoenix Airport Stakeholder Manager. In this role, she served as the chief liaison between the Federal Security Director and aviation stakeholders (air carrier/airport management, vendors/contractors, law enforcement teams, local interest groups).
After moving to northern Virginia, Catherine worked for MAXjet Airways, a now-defunct premium commercial air carrier, as Inflight Standards & Compliance Manager, where she gained qualification on Boeing 767 aircraft. In this role, she was responsible for the inflight department’s operations manual; she interfaced with operational and administrative groups regarding inflight procedures and policies; and she oversaw the inflight training program to ensure compliance with FAA regulations and guidance.
Catherine also served as Director, Inflight Service/Boeing Division, where she administered the air carrier’s contract to operate confidential international flights, while maintaining a U.S. Department of State SECRET clearance.
Prior to her ASI position at the FAA, Catherine provided consultant services to international and domestic clients seeking aviation guidance and assistance as Director of Security Operations & Inflight Services at Air Transport Business Development.
In addition to being a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST), Catherine holds a certificate in Paralegal Studies.
In her spare time, Catherine enjoys reading, downhill skiing, endlessly watching reruns of The West Wing, visiting wineries, volunteering for an organization that raises, trains, and places service dogs for people with disabilities, and running. She and her husband Bruce live in Leesburg, Virginia.
