The Airline Safety and Flight Improvement Act of 2009
Congress has finally done it and stepped into the Aviation training arena. H.R 3371, introduced by our very own Illinois Representative, Jerry Costello, now requires Commercial airline pilots to have on top of everything else, a minimum of 1,500 hours flight time and their ATP rating, as a hiring requirement for first officers in commercial airlines. Below is a summary of this bill’s highlights:
· Requires the FAA to ensure that pilots are trained on stall recovery, upset recovery, and that airlines provide remedial training.
· Requires airline pilots to hold an FAA ATP license (1,500 minimum flight hours required). Under current law, first officers need a Commercial Pilot License, which requires 250 flight hours.
· Requires the FAA to raise the minimum requirements for the ATP certificate to include efficiency in the following areas:
Air carrier operational environments
Adverse weather conditions including icing;
High altitude operations
Multi-pilot crew operations.
Adverse weather conditions including icing;
High altitude operations
Multi-pilot crew operations.
· Enables the FAA to consider allowing certain academic training hours that may increase the level of safety above the minimum requirements to be counted towards the 1,500-hour ATP certificate requirement.
· Establishes comprehensive pre-employment screening of prospective pilots including an assessment of a pilot's skills, aptitudes, airmanship and suitability for functioning in the airline's operational environment.
· Requires airlines to establish pilot mentoring programs, create Pilot Professional Development Committees, modify training to accommodate new-hire pilots with different levels and types of flight experience, and provide leadership and command training to pilots in command.
· Creates a Pilot Records Database to provide airlines with fast, electronic access to a pilot's comprehensive record. Information will include a pilot's licenses, aircraft ratings, check rides, Notices of Disapproval and other flight proficiency tests.
· Directs the FAA to update and implement a new pilot flight and duty time rule and fatigue risk management plans to more adequately track scientific research in the field of fatigue. It also requires air carriers to create fatigue risk management systems approved by the FAA.
· The bill also requires the Department of Transportation Inspector General to study and report to Congress on whether the number and experience level of safety inspectors assigned to regional airlines is commensurate with that of mainline airlines, mandates that the first page of an Internet website that sells airline tickets disclose the air carrier that operates each segment of the flight, and requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide an annual report to Congress on what the agency is doing to address each open National Transportation Safety Board recommendation pertaining to commercial air carriers....States News Service.
So what does all this mean for the average Aviator Joe? The common denominator here is that the end justifies the means and if Aviation safety is the ultimate goal, then all necessary means should be employed to attain it...right? What's your take?
