Congress to Hold News Conference to Announce Air Safety Improvement 2:30EST

[Lear70]

Good. Hope it gets passed quickly and doesn't get bogged down when some Congressional idiot tries to float a rider bill on it that is unpopular...

 

[Nevets]

H.R. 3371 Summary

H.R. 3371, THE “AIRLINE SAFETY AND PILOT TRAINING IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2009”

Pilot Training, Qualifications, Screening and Professional Development

Air Carrier Safety and Pilot Training Task Force

Establishes a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Task Force that will identify aviation industry best practices regarding: pilot training, pilot professional standards, and inter-carrier information sharing, mentoring and other safety-related practices.

The Task Force shall report to Congress every 180 days on air carrier progress implementing best practices, and make recommendations for legislative and regulatory action.

Implementation of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Recommendations

Requires FAA to ensure that pilots are trained on stall recovery, upset recovery, and that airlines provide remedial training.

Mandates the FAA to convene a multidisciplinary panel on pilot training for stick pusher operations, and then take action to implement the recommendations of the panel.

Requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide an annual report to Congress on what the agency is doing to address each open NTSB recommendation pertaining to part 121 air carriers.

Pilot Qualifications, Screening, Mentoring & Professional Development:

Requires airline pilots to hold an FAA Airline Transport Pilot license (1,500 minimum flight hours required).

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 whereby highly experienced pilots will mentor junior pilots; create Pilot Professional Development Committees; modify training programs to accommodate new-hire pilots with different levels and types of flight experience; and provide leadership and command training to pilots in command (including complying with the “sterile cockpit rule”).

Airline Training Hour Requirements

Studies the best methods and optimal time needed in airline training programs for pilots to master necessary aircraft systems, maneuvers, and procedures; the length of time between training events including recurrent training; and the best methods to reliably evaluate mastery of systems, maneuvers and procedures.

Pilot Records Database

Creates a Pilot Records Database, within 90 days, to provide airlines with fast, electronic access to a pilot’s comprehensive record.

Information included in the database will include pilot’s licenses, aircraft ratings, check rides, Notices of Disapproval and other flight proficiency tests.

FAA will maintain the database and airlines will be able to access the database for hiring purposes only.

Fatigue

Flight and Duty Time Rule: Directs the FAA to update and implement new pilot flight and duty time rules and fatigue risk management plans within one year to more adequately track scientific research in the field of fatigue.

Fatigue Risk Management Systems: Requires air carriers, within 90 days, to create fatigue risk management systems approved by FAA to proactively mitigate pilot fatigue.

Commuting Study: Studies the impact of pilot commuting on fatigue and provides preliminary results after four months to the FAA to be considered as part of the flight and duty time rulemaking.

Voluntary Safety Programs

ASAP and FOQA: Directs the FAA to develop and implement a plan to facilitate the establishment of an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and a Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) program by all commercial airlines and their unions.

Report: Requires FAA to report on ASAP, FOQA, Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA), and Advanced Qualification Program (AQP), which will include: an analysis of which airlines are using the programs or if they are using something comparable that achieves similar safety goals; how FAA will expand the use of the programs; and how FAA is using data from the programs as safety analysis and oversight tools for aviation safety inspectors.
Flight Schools, Flight Education and Pilot Academic Training Study

Directs the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of: current pilot academic training requirements compared to flight education provided by accredited two- and four-year universities and foreign academic requirements; FAA’s oversight of flight schools, and student loan options available to student pilots.

Other

FAA Safety Oversight by Inspectors: Requires the Department of Transportation Inspector General to study and report to Congress on if the number and experience level of safety inspectors assigned to regional airlines is commensurate with that of mainline airlines; and whether the various data sources that inspectors need to access to perform oversight of airlines can be streamlined into one data source.

Truth in Advertising: Mandates that at the first page of an Internet website that sells airline tickets to disclose to the purchaser of each ticket the air carrier that operates each segment of the flight.

Weather Event Training Panel: Requires the FAA to convene a multidisciplinary panel on pilot training for weather events including microburst, windshear and icing conditions.

 

[ualdriver]

H.R. 3371 Summary

Thanks.........where did you get that? Did you get it off a government website or through personal contacts?

 

[Nevets]

Thanks.........where did you get that? Did you get it off a government website or through personal contacts?

I got it from the House Subcommittee on Aviation website.

 

[ualdriver]

I got it from the House Subcommittee on Aviation website.

great, thanks.

 

[Lampshade]

This won't come up for a vote until September is that right?

 

[Singlecoil]

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.

I like it. Sim rides for applicants. I thought it was stupid when airlines started doing away with that.

 

[NavinRJohnson]

I got a sim ride for CAL, come to think of it Horizon, American Eagle, and Skywest all gave me sim rides when I interviewed with them. Out of curiosity, who doesn't?

 

[banger]

DAL, jetBlue SWA did not.

 

[Trogdor]

US does not do sim rides.