WASHINGTON &#8212 The Federal Aviation Administration has not gone nearly far enough in

improving aviation safety in the year since the Colgan Air crash in Clarence Center,

government inspectors said Thursday. But the agency pushed back by announcing plans for new

pilot-training rules.

Of the FAA&#8217s 10 initiatives tied to the FAA&#8217s voluntary &#8220Call to

Action&#8221 effort, eight are either falling behind schedule or not meeting their intended

goals, the U.S. Department of Transportation&#8217s inspector general said.

Asked by lawmakers at a House hearing to grade the FAA&#8217s effort, Inspector General

Calvin L. Scovel III said: &#8220I would grade it &#8216incomplete.&#8217 Very much needs to

be done.&#8221

Most importantly, &#8220progress has been limited in implementing initiatives with the

greatest potential to improve safety, such as issuing new rules governing crew rest and

training,&#8221 Scovel said.

In response, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt defended the agency, saying that the

&#8220Call to Action&#8221 report issued last week had prompted many airlines to take part in

a voluntary safety program that they had previously spurned.

Babbitt also said the agency would be developing new rules that could triple the number of

flight hours required for beginning co-pilots to 750. But the document announcing development

of those rules made no commitment that the agency would push for such an increase.

The FAA&#8217s announcement regarding new pilot-training regulations appeared to do little

to allay the concerns of Scovel or members of the House Aviation subcommittee.

Lawmakers pressed Babbitt on why another FAA proposal, aimed at controlling pilot fatigue,

had been pushed back from last year to this coming spring.

&#8220I was overly ambitious,&#8221 Babbitt said in explaining the delay. &#8220It is an

incredibly complex rule.&#8221

Scovel criticized the FAA for failing to develop a rule limiting pilot fatigue when it

tried to do so in the mid-1990s and for failing to attempt to do so in the following 15 years.

&#8220If past is prologue, a new rule could be years in the making,&#8221 Scovel said.

Nevertheless, Babbitt counseled patience. He acknowledged problems with pilot

professionalism, laid bare by the fact that the Flight 3407 crew flouted the rules banning

irrelevant conversation during critical times of the flight.

&#8220It took years to get to this point,&#8221 Babbitt said of such lapses, adding,

&#8220It&#8217s going to take years to get it back&#8221 to where pilot professionalism ought

to be.

In response, Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., the subcommittee chairman, said, &#8220There

are things that need to be addressed &#8212 and it should not take years.&#8221

Scovel noted that his office&#8217s review had identified some of those urgent matters.

&#8220Other critical issues emerged after the Colgan accident that remain unaddressed, such

as potential correlations between pilot experience and compensation,&#8221 Scovel added.

The FAA did special investigations of the airlines&#8217 pilot-training programs as part of

the &#8220Call to Action,&#8221 but Scovel&#8217s agency found that the inspections were

ineffectively designed and implemented.

&#8220More importantly, the [inspector general&#8217s] review identified more than 20 air

carriers that had not fully implemented remedial training programs as previously recommended

by FAA in 2006,&#8221 Scovel said.

Even so, Babbitt said, the agency should be given credit for the &#8220Call to Action&#8221

effort to prod all the nation&#8217s airlines into enlisting in a voluntary safety program, in

which they collect and share data in hopes of identifying safety problems.

&#8220I am concerned that no one is taking into account the benefits in our final report

that we have achieved,&#8221 Babbitt said.

In addition, the FAA announced that it is giving the public 60 days to comment on a new set

of pilot-training rules the agency intends to draw up. Those rules would be in addition to

another training proposal that the agency proposed 13 months ago but that is being redrawn

amid airline industry opposition.

The document announcing the coming rulemaking process suggested that the agency would

consider boosting the number of flight hours required by new co-pilots to 750, up from 250

today.

But the agency hardly seems enthused about that prospect.

&#8220Some have suggested that, regardless of academic training, the FAA should require a

minimum of 750 hours for a commercial pilot to serve as [co-pilot],&#8221 the agency said in

the formal announcement that it would be proposing a new pilot-training rule. &#8220Is this

number too high, or too low, and why?&#8221

Such wording was typical of the announcement, which was posed not as a definitive proposal,

but as a series of discussion items addressing questions such as:

Whether co-pilots, as well as pilots, should be required to hold an Air Transport

Pilot certificate, which requires them to have 1,500 hours of flying experience.

Whether academic credit should be accepted in lieu of some of those hours.

Whether the FAA should establish a new type of license short of the ATP certification,

which will nonetheless address concerns about the fact that co-pilots are currently required

to have only 250 hours of flying experience.

Whether safety could be boosted by addressing pilot certification issues on an

airline-by-airline basis.

Thursday&#8217s hearing came two days after the National Transportation Safety Board

released its final report on the Clarence Center crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407,

which Colgan operated. Fifty people were killed in the accident Feb. 12, 2009.

The report cited pilot error as the probable cause of the crash, but the safety agency also

released 25 recommendations, many focusing on pilot training.

&#8220In spite of your best efforts, it&#8217s going to take legislation to address some of

the issues,&#8221 Costello told Babbitt.

The House already has passed a comprehensive aviation safety bill that addresses many of

the problems the safety board noted in the Colgan crash investigation. But the legislation has

stalled in the Senate, where it stands behind health care reform on the list of legislative

priorities.

A large contingent from the group Families of Continental Flight 3407 attended

Thursday&#8217s hearing. Afterward, Kevin Kuwik, one of the group&#8217s most active members,

stressed that the group is seeking comprehensive new rules on how pilots should be trained and

what they should learn, as well as a requirement that new co-pilots have 1,500 hours of

cockpit experience.

Meanwhile, Bob Perry &#8212 whose son Johnathan was killed in the crash, along with

girlfriend Nicole Korczykowski &#8212 took his case directly to Babbitt.

As the FAA chief spoke with reporters after the hearing, Perry handed Babbitt a Families of

Continental Flight 3407 business card bearing a picture of Johnathan and Nicole.

&#8220They were real people,&#8221 Perry told Babbitt. &#8220They need real solutions. And

we need it real fast.&#8221