Exactly. I’d say the number of modern CEO’s not knowing their industry is a symptom of too much government, but that shouldn’t be an absolute disqualification.
If you are going to use the idea that successful people can be successful though, you ought to be picking very successful people who were successful for very particular reasons. If this appointee had turned around another agency or organization with similar problems, it wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t from aviation, I’d be willing to take the chance.