Congress Passes Law to Increase Safety on Commercial Flights

September 09, 2010

This August, President Obama signed the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-216) into law. The Act is the first piece of major federal legislation aimed at strengthening airline safety standards passed in the last 20 years.

Most notably, the Act requires all commercial airline pilots to have completed a minimum of 1500 flight hours in addition to "appropriate" operational experience before they may begin piloting commercial passenger flights. Prior to the law's enactment, pilots needed to complete as little as 250 hours before being hired by an airline.

Other major provisions of the Act include:
- The creation of a national electronic pilot records database; each airline must review the information in the database on a pilot prior to hire
- The establishment of a FAA Task Force on Air Carrier Safety and Pilot Training
- Airlines must now disclose which air carriers are responsible for transporting passengers during each leg of a flight
- The FAA must issue regulations limiting on-duty and flight time for pilots and address pilot fatigue
- Each airline must develop fatigue risk management plans and submit them for approval to the FAA

While the airline pilot unions were in support of the changes to the law, the legislation received considerable opposition from the airlines and flight training schools, which were concerned about the increased costs for training pilots and carrying out other provisions of the law.

Changes Come in Wake of 2009 Crash

The airline safety bill was passed in response to the February 2009 crash of Colgan Airlines Flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York. The Continental Connection flight killed 49 people, including the pilots and one person on the ground in Clarence Center, New York. It was the deadliest crash in the U.S. in seven years.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) attributed the crash to pilot error by Captain Marvin Renslow, who failed to respond correctly to a stall warning in the cockpit. Further investigation into the crash revealed that Renslow and co-pilot Rebecca Shaw had little operational experience flying that plane type in inclement weather and the majority of their training flight time was spent manning small, single-engine planes.

It also was discovered that the pilots had commuted to the regional airline's hub in Newark the night before the flight and slept in the crew lounge rather than rent a hotel room. On the black box recording, the pilots are heard yawning several times and discussing their low salaries from Colgan and their long commutes to work.

Colgan Airlines, Continental's regional airline partner, has been under investigation in the past for over-scheduling pilots. After the February crash, Colgan executives were brought before the NTSB and questioned about their practices, including the $15,800 annual salary of their pilots.

Does Law Go Far Enough?

Some believe that while the new law is a start, it does not go far enough to protect passenger safety, especially on smaller regional airlines. Regional carriers have been involved in the last seven fatal U.S. crashes with pilot error a contributing factor in four out of the seven. Over the past several years, troubled major airlines have contracted out work to these smaller, regional airlines as a way to save money.

The biggest criticism of the legislation is that it assumes simply increasing the number of flight training hours will result in better pilots. Unfortunately, this may not be true. The law does not specify the type of conditions the pilot must complete the training in or the type of planes that must be flown. Thus, it is conceivable that a pilot could log 1500 hours flying a single engine plane in clear weather conditions.

Another criticism of the law is the vagueness of its requirements. For example, the definition of an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate was changed to require that pilots have "sufficient" flight hours to function effectively in multi-pilot air carrier environments during poor weather conditions and high altitude operations. However, the number of hours that is considered "sufficient" to achieve this is not defined.

Lastly, many of the provisions of the law will take three years before they go into effect, which does little to help airline passengers now. It will take time for the FAA to complete the tasks assigned to it in the aviation safety bill, including setting pilot on-duty flight hours and developing a program to curb pilot fatigue.

The NTSB has been asking Congress to pass legislation to increase airline safety standards for many years. Without the Buffalo crash and lobbying efforts of the crash victims' friends and family, this bill may have never passed.

Article provided by The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C.
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