Regional Airline Safety Summit – Secretary LaHood Blogs about the summit; FAA & Airlines discuss ways voluntary ways to boost safety
(Source: ABC News, FastLane Blog & YouTube)
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood made a post this morning on his FastLane blog that had a time stamp of 5:53AM. Feels good to know that someone at the Secretary’s-level cares to let the citizens know about what he is doing through such blog posts, even if can squeeze a minute or two to press a blog at that ungodly hour of the day. Thank you, Hon. Secretary LaHood for keeping us informed.
In his post he noted that later in the day, he will convene a summit with representatives from the major air carriers, their regional partners, aviation industry groups and labor on the topic: improving airline safety. “Every one of us who gathers here today has a responsibility to take the necessary steps to make flying safer. And, we will make sure that carriers and their regional partners are working together on all aspects of safety. Our goal is simple: We must inspire confidence in every traveler, every time he or she steps onto a commercial aircraft of any size, at any airport in the country. It’s an enormous responsibility; it’s our highest duty” ,observed the Secretary.
Along with the FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, he pulled together the FAA and industry leaders to produce an immediate “to do” list to assure the flying public that all our country’s carriers–including our regional carriers–are operating as safely as possible. He stated the highest priority is protecting lives and to that end, the USDOT will act quickly to set effective industry standards on crew education, training and performance, professionalism, and flight discipline.
ABC News report from the Summit had the following: FAA administrator Randy Babbitt told airline companies today he expects them to do complete background checks on pilots before hiring them to fly passengers — including getting permission from pilots to access all of their training records. Airlines are allowed to do that today but it became clear in wake of the February plane crash in Buffalo, N.Y., that not all of them do.
“There’s a public perception out there, unfortunately, right now that pilots can repeatedly fail check rides and still keep their jobs,” Babbitt said. “We want the passengers in this country to have absolutely no doubt about the qualifications of the person or crew flying their airplane.”
“I want a recommendation today about asking Congress to expand the scope of the Pilot Records Improvement Act to give employers access to all of the records available in a pilot’s file,” Babbitt also said.
Though current law dictates that pilots must sign a release allowing potential employers access to their training records, the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday set new expectations and strongly recommended the airlines ask for access. Finding ways for airlines to voluntarily make flying safer was the focus of conversation as representatives from all corners of the airline business gathered at the FAA in Washington, D.C., with Babbitt and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
“We want to be innovative,” Dan Morgan, vice president of Colgan Air’s safety and regulatory compliance, said last week. “We’re part of an industry that’s highly regulated, but there’s nothing that says that we can’t try to do a few things that haven’t been done before.”
High on the agenda was crafting a manifesto by day’s end to reassure travelers that airlines are doing all they can to ensure pilots are beyond prepared to fly passengers to their destinations, and to help more senior pilots mentor those with less experience.
Click here to read the entire summit report.
Voluntary measures? Yeah, right – only until we aren’t paying attention again. It is past time for the airline industry to be re-regulated. It’s out of control and competition is too intense. Corners will be cut for the sake of the Almighty Dollar. Some of us remember a time when the airlines competed on a service point instead of a price point and we could trust that all FARs were being followed. Not any more. Some of us remember that when an airline cancelled a flight, they were required to re-book the passengers on another flight, whether that flight was theirs of a competitor’s. It cost a bit more to fly, but not that much and airliners weren’t cattle cars with wings.
Other industries that simply must be re-regulated: telecommunications, energy (including the oil companies), transportation and healthcare. If an industry is vital to the national security or public interest, it should be carefully regulated and not left to the caprices of unscrupulous and greedy investors.
The fact that pilots failed multiple tests and still were allowed to fly is absolutely ridiculous. According to newsy.com, in the past seven years regional airlines had 150 deaths while major airlines online had 1. The difference is astounding! http://www.newsy.com/videos/securing_safety_standards Congress does need to pass an act allowing employers to have more access to pilots’ records.