About Us

Safety | Made| Simple

Unleash the power in your Safety Department and improve the safety performance of your operation!

At FlightGuardian we promote best practices, shape safety thinking and drive continuous improvement in safety performance across the board.

Our mission is to improve aviation safety, with trusting relationships at the heart of everything we do.

As experts in our field, we use a hands-on customer-obsessed approach to guide, influence and sustain improvements in safety and performance.

All our work is specifically tailored to your business and does not create additional burden or boxes to check, but drives you towards success!

We simply want you to fly safely!

Meet the team

David W.R. Schöne - Managing Director

David is one of the founders of FlightGuardian. When he was nine years old, he witnessed an aircraft accident and says that sparked his fascination with aviation safety! How could this happen and how could this be prevented?

David has a wealth of experience in nearly all areas of aviation safety:

As a former member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Safety Management Panel (SMP) and the Accident Investigation Panel (AIGP), he drafted updates of regulations. He advised the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) on rule makings tasks and is a member of the IATA Accident Classification Task Force (ACTF).

David has held TV interviews, speaks at various world-wide venues and has published papers in many online portals.

Although he still is an active pilot with more than 12.000 flighthours in gliders, piston and jet-aircraft, David has worked as Safety Officer, Safety Analyst, Safety Investigator, Instructor and Language Tester.

Nicole Schöne - Managing Director

Nicole Schöne, one of the founders of FlightGuardian, embodies the essence of years of expertise and passion for her field. With a solid background as a business graduate and almost two decades of practical experience, including 15 years in a listed global corporation, she is a driving force behind the success of our company.

Nicole has managed numerous national and international projects: From the organization and implementation of international trade fairs to the introduction of consistent brand appearances for subsidiaries abroad and the strategic implementation of projects in the field of global communication, she has a wealth of experience.

As a certified Change Manager, she is able to initiate, successfully organize and confidently accompany change processes - for future-proofing and employee-oriented development.

Patrick Jordan - Consultant / Investigator

Patrick Jordan is an airline Captain, who has accumulated over 12,000 flying hours on Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas products in leisure, legacy and cargo operation.

Patrick is an accredited Aviation Accident Investigator with the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations and previously held the position of a Flight Safety Officer with his airline’s Flight Safety department. During the last 20+ years he represented pilots and his operator on national and international level at numerous stakeholders, such as regulators, aviation organizations, flight safety conferences, etc.

As a flight safety expert, Patrick is a skilled investigator looking into flight safety events from a systems thinking perspective.

Daniel Plum - Consultant / Investigator

Daniel is a new addition to the team.

As an active Pilot on Boeing B737, an accredited Aviation Accident Investigator and former Safety and Flight Data Monitoring Analyst, Daniel brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our team.

Carsten Reuter - Instructor (external)

Carsten is a highly experienced trainer and retired Airbus A380 Captain with over 18,000 flying hours and deep expertise in flight time limitations (FTL) and fatigue risk management (FRM).

With over 40 years of experience, Carsten combines extensive Airbus operational expertise with a strong focus on aviation safety and crew scheduling. Since 1995, he has played a key role in shaping European regulations, including JAR-OPS, EU OPS, and EASA FTL. He has contributed to regulatory guidance, co-developed pilot alertness training with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and authored respected materials on fatigue risk management.

Today, Carsten brings this wealth of experience into the classroom - translating complex regulatory frameworks into practical, real-world knowledge. As a trainer, he is valued for his clarity, depth, and ability to connect operational realities with regulatory requirements.

In his free time, Carsten still enjoys flying - now at the controls of a classic biplane.

Jens Piotter - Instructor (external)

Jens began his aviation career as a pilot with the German Navy at Naval Air Wing 3. During his military service, he received specialized training as a Flight Safety Officer, focusing on accident investigation, incident prevention, and the operational planning and coordination of squadron activities.

After serving in the armed forces, Jens transitioned to civil aviation, logging over 10,000 flight hours on McDonnell Douglas and Boeing aircraft with a global cargo airline. A certified Accident Investigator, he trains on Just Culture and organizational response to failure across airlines, ATC, and the judicial sector. Now retired as a Type Rating Instructor and Examiner, he teaches future pilots as a Theoretical Knowledge Instructor.

Deeply committed to advancing aviation safety, Jens emphasizes the importance of honest reporting as the foundation of a resilient safety culture. He is dedicated to helping organizations understand and implement effective safety management practices.

Certifications

We promote the highest standard in aviation safety. Therefore, we hold ourselves trained to the highest standard.

We are certified in:

Accident Investigation
Safety Investigation
Change Management
Safety Risk Assessment
Flight Data Monitoring
Fatigue Risk Management
Flight Time Limitations
Safety Management Systems
Threat & Error Management
Theoretical Knowledge Instruction
Language Testing