Passage of flight safety bill hailed
WASHINGTON—The families of Flight 3407 reacted with restrained joy Wednesday as the House overwhelmingly approved an airline safety bill that aims to correct the problems that ended up costing the lives of their loved ones.
“Though we are happy with the results of today’s bill, we are only viewing it as a small step in the right direction,” said Zeb Mellett, whose brother, jazz guitarist Coleman Mellett, was among the 50 people killed when Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed in Clarence Center on Feb. 12.
“It’s important that the House understand how appreciative we are of their efforts, and we now feel it is up to the Senate to carry the torch and push this through.”
The House bill, which will have to be merged with Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization legislation that is being considered by the Senate Finance Committee, would dramatically boost the amount of flight time a pilot needs to get hired by a commercial airline. The bill would also make it far easier for airlines to see pilots’ flight records before they are hired.
In addition, the bill would impose stringent training standards to ensure that pilots know how to operate stall-recovery systems and would require that airlines develop fatigue risk management systems for pilots.
“This is the strongest aviation safety bill considered since the creation of the FAA in 1958,” said Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., chairman of the House subcommittee on aviation.
The bill passed, 409-11, with only a small group of Republicans—including libertarians such as Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas— opposed. The easy passage of the bill strengthens the hand of the families of Flight 3407 as the issue moves to the Senate side of Capitol Hill.
Most importantly, the House bill would boost the number of flight hours required for newly hired commercial pilots from 250 hours to 1,500. That increase stems from revelations that the pilot of Flight 3407 reacted inappropriately to the plane’s stall warning and that the co-pilot had never flown in icing conditions.
“Being a commercial airline pilot is not an entry-level position,” said Rep. Chris Lee, R-Clarence.
The increase in required pilot flight hours is not in an FAA reauthorization bill that is expected to be voted on by the Senate this year, but Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., vowed to push for its inclusion.
A House-Senate conference committee is expected to merge that Senate measure with both an FAA bill the House approved earlier this year and the House aviation safety legislation approved Wednesday.
The Buffalo area’s three House members all support the aviation safety bill.
“The tragedy of Flight 3407 awakened Western New Yorkers to the lack of training and standards in the regional airline industry,” said Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, DFairport. “Today I’m proud that the House is moving forward with legislation that I believe includes a strong new set of guidelines for improving passenger and crew safety.”
The bill would require pilots to have an Airline Transport Pilot license — and the 1,500 flight hours it requires—before being hired at a commercial airline.
However, the bill is not quite as strong as it was when it emerged from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at the end of July.
Complaints from university aviation programs led committee leaders to add a new section of the bill that would allow the FAA to include university class time in that 1,500-hour flight time requirement if the class time is deemed to provide training superior to that of actual flying.
But neither the Buffalo-area lawmakers nor the families are happy about that.
The Flight 3407 families “clearly are very, very leery of anything less than hands-on, in-the-cockpit, in-the-simulator training,” said Kevin Kuwik, who lost his girlfriend, Lorin Maurer, in the crash. “It’s just hard for us to accept that anything that happens in the classroom, with a Power- Point presentation, with a DVD, that that can substitute for flying in the air.”
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