Warren Randolph

Warren Randolph is a U.S. transportation-safety data official whose public UAP relevance comes from NASA's 2022 selection of him for its independent UAP study team.¹ NASA identified Randolph as an FAA aviation-safety executive, and later NTSB and CDO Council records identify the same professional path from FAA safety analytics to NTSB data leadership.¹²³ The public record reviewed for this dossier supports Randolph's role as an aviation-safety and data-analysis specialist, not as a firsthand UAP witness, crash-retrieval source, or claimant of nonhuman technology.¹⁴²

  FAA Safety Data Career

NASA's October 2022 study-team announcement described Randolph as deputy executive director of the FAA's Accident Investigation and Prevention for Aviation Safety department.¹ The same NASA announcement said he was responsible for setting and implementing safety management system principles and using data to assess future hazards and emerging safety risks.¹ NASA also stated that before joining the FAA, Randolph worked as an aerodynamicist for U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Air Force flight simulations.¹

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta's 2014 InfoShare remarks identified Randolph as manager of Accident Prevention's Integrated Safety Teams and Program Management Branch.⁵ Huerta described InfoShare, the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, and ASIAS as part of a shift from post-accident forensics toward identifying risks and reducing hazards before accidents occur.⁵ A public ASIAS overview bearing Randolph's name as director of FAA Aviation Safety Analytical Services Division, AVP-200, described ASIAS as a collaborative government-industry safety-data analysis and sharing initiative that identifies and understands risks before accidents or incidents occur.⁶

Federal aviation records also show Randolph's role in FAA safety work beyond ASIAS.⁷ A 2016 FAA Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee subcommittee record named Randolph of FAA's Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention as a co-lead of the FAA-NASA System-Wide Safety Assurance Research Transition Team.⁷ The same record says Randolph briefed the team on objectives for transitioning technologies, tools, and knowledge to support safety assurance, including potential integration of NASA safety-modeling tools with the FAA Integrated Safety Assessment Model.⁷

  National Aviation Safety Role

Performance.gov listed Randolph as one of the FAA goal leaders for the Department of Transportation's "Increase Aviation Safety" agency-priority goal for fiscal years 2020 and 2021.⁸ That public goal aimed to keep the commercial air-carrier fatality rate below a specified target and reduce general-aviation fatal accidents by September 30, 2021.⁸ This record places Randolph inside FAA safety management and measurement work rather than inside the intelligence or defense channels that often dominate UAP discussions.¹⁸

The NTSB announced on February 27, 2024, that Randolph had been appointed as the agency's first chief data officer after serving at the FAA as deputy executive director of the Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention.² The NTSB release says he had earlier directed the FAA Analytical Services Division, AVP-200, where he managed programs including ASIAS.² It also describes him as a private pilot with an airframe and powerplant license and as a Purdue University Bachelor of Science graduate.²

  NASA UAP Independent Study

NASA announced on October 21, 2022, that Randolph was one of 16 members selected for an independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena.¹ NASA said the team would begin work on October 24, 2022, use only unclassified data, identify data from civilian government, commercial, and other sources, and recommend a roadmap for possible NASA UAP data analysis.¹ NASA's UAP page describes the study as an effort to examine UAP from a scientific perspective by identifying available data, future collection methods, and ways NASA could use data to advance understanding.⁹

NASA's final report lists Mr. Warren Randolph of the Federal Aviation Administration among the members of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team.⁴ The report says the team drew on backgrounds in science, technology, data, artificial intelligence, space exploration, aerospace safety, media, and commercial innovation.⁴ NASA's May 31, 2023 public meeting agenda included an FAA Air Traffic Surveillance Services Office presentation, which matches the study's attention to airspace data and aviation reporting pathways.¹⁰

  Airspace Data and Reporting Context

The NASA final report framed UAP analysis as a data-quality problem, saying limited high-quality observations and inconsistent, incomplete reporting prevented definitive scientific conclusions.⁴ The report recommended better use of NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System for commercial-pilot UAP reporting and said NASA's partnership with the FAA should be used to explore advanced, real-time analysis techniques for future air traffic management systems.⁴ Those recommendations align with Randolph's documented FAA work on safety data, ASIAS, and FAA-NASA safety assurance, but the report does not assign individual authorship of specific recommendations to him.⁴⁶⁷

The report also stated that the study was a roadmap for future data and was not a review of previous UAP incidents.⁴ That distinction matters for Randolph's dossier because the strongest documented connection is institutional expertise in aviation safety data, not evidentiary involvement in any specific UAP case.¹⁴²

  NTSB Data Leadership

The Federal Chief Data Officers Council lists Randolph as NTSB chief data officer and says he leads data-driven initiatives to enhance transportation safety.³ The NTSB's 2024 appointment release also described the new role as part of a data-driven approach to improving safety at the agency.²

The CDO Council biography says Randolph held senior FAA positions before joining the NTSB and spearheaded advanced analytics to identify safety risks before they led to accidents.³ It also repeats the aviation-background details that he began as an aerodynamicist developing flight simulators for the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force and that he is a licensed pilot and certified aircraft mechanic.³ These records are consistent with the NASA UAP study's stated need for aerospace safety and data expertise, while remaining separate from any claim that Randolph personally validated extraordinary UAP explanations.¹⁴³

  People Index Relevance

Randolph belongs in this people index because he connects the NASA UAP study to FAA safety management, ASIAS, FAA-NASA aviation-safety research transition work, and later NTSB data governance.¹²⁶⁷ His relevance is strongest for understanding how UAP entered aviation-safety data systems and reporting debates, not for evaluating the origin of any individual sighting.⁹⁴ A careful reading of the public record treats Randolph as an aviation-safety data expert inside NASA's advisory process and avoids unsupported identity leaps beyond the FAA, NASA, and NTSB documentation.¹⁴²³

  References

  References

1. nasa.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

2. ntsb.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. cdo.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. science.nasa.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

5. faa.gov ↩ ↩²

6. primis-meetings.phmsa.dot.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. faa.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. trumpadministration.archives.performance.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. science.nasa.gov ↩ ↩²

10. science.nasa.gov ↩