Dominic Gates is an Irish-Americanaerospacejournalist,math teacher, andPulitzer Prize winner. He spent most his career withThe Seattle Times on assignment to coverBoeing from 2003 to 2025. Gates was a co-recipient of the2020 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting alongsideSteve Miletich,Mike Baker, andLewis Kamb for their coverage of theBoeing 737 MAX crashes and investigations. Gates retired fromThe Times in 2025.

Gates was born inDungannon,Northern Ireland, as one of six children.^[1] He was educated atSt Patrick's Academy in Dungannon and graduated with a mathematics degree fromQueen's University, Belfast.^[2] Gates taught high school mathematics in Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe before relocating to the United States.^[3][4]

While having no formal training in journalism, Gates contributed several articles to the magazineFortnight on an unpaid basis.^[4] After moving to Seattle with his wife in 1992, he took on several freelancing assignments for various magazines and news organizations while continuing to teach mathematics.^[5] Gates was hired by technology magazineThe Industry Standard in 2000, but the magazine went out of business 18 months later.^[3][4]

Gates then joinedThe Seattle Times in 2003 as anaerospace reporter, covering the localBoeing beat. He covered the development and launch of theBoeing 787 Dreamliner project and later theBoeing 737 MAX program, including two fatal crashes and the subsequent grounding of the aircraft.^[3] He won critical acclaim for his investigation into the 737 MAX and its automated flight control system, which had been written prior to the second crash.^[1] Gates andTimes colleaguesSteve Miletich,Mike Baker, andLewis Kamb were awarded the 2019George Polk Award in Business Reporting, the2020 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting, and the 2020Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting for their coverage of the Boeing 737 MAX program.^[4][6][7][8]

On March 14, 2025, Gates retired fromThe Seattle Times after 22 years as the newspaper's aerospace reporter.^[9]

Gates is married to Nina Shapiro, a fellow journalist atThe Seattle Times whom he met while teaching in Zimbabwe.^[3] They have two adult daughters.^[1]

• "Boeing's 737 MAX Crisis",The Seattle Times^[10] – award-winning series^[4][6][7][8]

1. "Flawed analysis, failed oversight: How Boeing, FAA certified the suspect 737 MAX flight control system", March 21, 2019^[11]
2. "Engineers say Boeing pushed to limit safety testing in race to certify planes, including 737 MAX", May 5, 2019^[12]
3. "The inside story of MCAS: How Boeing's 737 MAX system gained power and lost safeguards", June 24, 2019^[13]
4. "Boeing rejected 737 MAX safety upgrades before fatal crashes, whistleblower says", October 3, 2019^[14]
5. "Boeing pushed FAA to relax 737 MAX certification requirements for crew alerts", October 3, 2019^[15]

• 21st-century American journalists
• Living people
• American investigative journalists
• Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
• Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners
• The Seattle Times people
• Journalists from Northern Ireland
• People from Dungannon
• Emigrants from Northern Ireland to the United States
• Schoolteachers from Washington (state)
• American mathematics educators
• Gerald Loeb Award winners for Deadline and Beat Reporting
• People educated at St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon
• Writers from County Tyrone

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