Lyle soloed at age 16, and over his aviation career has built up experience as a pilot, instructor, mechanic, air traffic controller, and air safety investigator. Additionally, he has worked as a forensic investigator in both criminal and medical fields with the US Navy and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department. He retired from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2007 after 33 years of government service, with the last 18 of those years spent in the Accident Investigation Division at the agency’s Washington, DC Headquarters. He was Manager of that Division for the last four years of his career.

 

During his years in Accident Investigation, he was involved in such cases as United 232 at Sioux City, IA; Avianca 52 at Cove Neck, NY; the Northwest Airlines runway collision at Detroit, MI; Lauda Air 004 near Dan Chang, Thailand; Air Inter 5148 near Strasbourg, France; Simmons 4184 at Roselawn, IN; TWA 800 near Long Island, NY; ValuJet 592 in the Florida Everglades; Cebu Pacific 387 near Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; Swissair 111 in Nova Scotia, Canada; American 1420 at Little Rock, AR; Egypt Air 990 near Nantucket, MA; a Thai Airways B737 fuel tank explosion at Bangkok, Thailand; and American 587 in Queens, NY.

 

Lyle is an aviation safety consultant specializing in Accident/Incident Investigation and Safety Management Systems; provides support for the US Department of Justice in aviation litigation matters; and volunteers as a Safety Advisor to run the Safety Management System for his local county airport.

 

Although no longer actively flying, he is an Instrument rated Commercial Pilot for Airplane Single- and Multi-Engine Land and Gliders; Ground Instructor Advanced and Instrument; Flight Instructor Airplane Single-Engine Land and Instrument Airplane; Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic; and Air Traffic Control Specialist (Enroute Radar).

 

Lyle is a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International), and the United States Naval Institute.