Proposed Rule Seeks to Undermine New Aviation Safety Requirements

December 11, 2010

Panel Recommends Cutting Training Hours from 1500 to 500

This past July, Congress passed the first comprehensive aviation safety bill in two decades. Not less than three months after it was signed into law, one of the most important aspects of the legislation already is under attack.

Among other things, the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 requires airlines to hire more experienced pilots by increasing the number of mandated flight training hours from 250 to 1500.

While pilots on most major airline carriers generally have more than 1500 training hours before they are hired, this has not been the case with smaller regional carriers. Regional airline flights account for more than half of all commercial passenger flights. They also account for seven of the most recent aviation disasters in the U.S. The new aviation safety legislation was passed in response to the most recent of these crashes.

Flight 3407 on Colgan Airlines, a regional partner of Continental Airlines, crashed near Buffalo, New York in February 2009. Fifty people died in the accident, including both pilots, all of the passengers and one person on the ground. The crash was attributed to pilot error. In an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), it was discovered that the pilot and co-pilot had little operational flying experience in bad weather situations and that both pilots were fatigued after long commutes the night before the flight.

Families of those who lost loved ones in the Buffalo crash lobbied hard and pushed their Congressional representatives even harder to get the aviation safety bill passed. The 1500 hour training requirement is only one component of the law meant to increase passenger safety on commercial flights. The law also has provisions directing the FAA to change the rules on pilot work hours to decrease fatigue, provide better training to pilots and create a system to make it easier for airlines to investigate a pilot's previous employment record before hiring him or her.

As the FAA enters into the rule-making phase to implement the requirements of the new law, there has been a proposal to cut the increased number of required flight hours by two-thirds. In October, an advisory panel recommended that the FAA allow pilots who meet certain academic qualifications to fly with as little as 500 in-air training hours.

Congress, Families of Flight 3407 Vow to Fight Proposed Decrease

Predictably, the recommendation was met with immediate criticism. Key Congressional members, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), sent a letter to the FAA encouraging it reject the recommendation and honor the 1500 hour requirement passed by Congress. Family members of those who died in the Flight 3407 crash also have vowed to fight any proposed rules that would gut the purpose of the law - to provide "one level of safety" for passengers on all commercial flights, regardless if it is on a regional or major airline.

While the FAA officially has said that it will not base its decision on whether to lower the required number of flight hours for pilots based solely on the advisory panel's recommendation, a loophole in the aviation safety bill gives the federal agency the authority to allow pilots with less than 1500 hours of training time to fly commercial passenger planes if the FAA concludes that academic training "will enhance safety more" than the requisite flight training hours.

The FAA advisory panel largely is made up of industry insiders, including flight school proponents and labor representatives who opposed the 1500 hour requirement from the start.

Currently, there is no end-date for the FAA to conclude the rule-making process for implementing the new aviation safety requirements. However, once the proposed rules have been written, the FAA is required to make them available for public comment prior to accepting them. The entire process could take more than a year to complete.

Article provided by Carty Houst PA
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