William Britton “Brit” Etzold BS’81 grew up in Wisconsin and Arizona before heading northwest to Lewis & Clark, earning his BS in Natural Science with a History minor. He also participated in the very eye-opening first L&C overseas program to the USSR in 1979.
After graduation, Brit spent time working on domestic and overseas hunger issues at Bread for the World in Washington, DC. He served as a regional organizer, teaching basic civics, food-related public policy, and grassroots political activism to college, community, and church groups in seven states from Minnesota westward to Oregon and Washington.
Brit’s aviation career began in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1984 as a flight instructor, charter, aerial photography, traffic reporting, and air freight pilot. After moving back to the northwest in 1989 he flew worldwide as a corporate pilot for Louisiana Pacific, serving as pilot in command of Cessna Citation 2 and 3, Lear 24 and 35 and Gulfstream 2, 3 and 4.
In 1998 Brit was hired by Northwest Airlines and spent thirteen years as a pilot and instructor for Northwest and Delta Air Lines. He flew the B727, B737, B757, B767, DC-9 and A320. He also instructed on the Airbus A319/320.
Brit was recruited by the Boeing Company in Seattle as a Safety Pilot and retired from Boeing as the Deputy Chief Engineer for Global Aviation System Safety and Regulatory Affairs.
Throughout his career Brit’s primary professional focus has always been aviation safety. Brit is an internationally accredited (IFALPA) aircraft accident investigator and taught accident investigation for the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), Northwest Airlines, and Delta Air Lines. He is also an accredited instructor in Safety Management Systems.
He was central to the early introduction of both ASAP (pilot safety reporting) and FOQA (flight data analysis) programs at air carriers around the United States and, through his work with ICAO (part of the United Nations), to many international carriers as well. He was one of the early leaders in the development of the U.S. Aviation Safety Information and Analysis Sharing (ASIAS) program which combines pilot incident reporting with flight data analysis to better understand and learn from incidents in aviation and other high- consequence industries. He also served as Director, Safety Information Analysis Programs for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
With the time made available by retirement, Brit and Jan (L&C BS’80) have become actively involved in philanthropy and social justice initiatives supporting affordable housing, walkable communities, food pantries, outdoor education for underserved communities, fine arts, and, of course, Lewis & Clark.