M(F)S,
it looks like a good argument but I am not at all sure.
At most times in the past, some NTSB board members had accident investigation experience of some sort. The latest composition could well be a political anomaly. Indeed I know people who are very unhappy with the current board composition as well as with some previous compositions.
The U.S. nuclear industry has a history of intervention by very senior scientists, such as the Lewis Report, which is one of the fundamental documents of system safety, even thirty years later. Also NASA space, with the Challenger report including exemplary contributions by a certain R. Feynman, who I understand wrote a set of intro physics textbooks which people like
It turns out that Professor Lewis is also very interested in aviation. Given his hard-won achievements with the nuclear industry, I wonder why he was not invited to convene a committee for Lewis Report II on aviation safety?
One possible answer, and I should like to emphasise I am engaging in political speculation here: because major public pronoucements on aviation safety in the U.S. is traditionally the domain of amateurs? Discuss.
PBL