American's ASAP May Fall Victim To Contract Bickering

A program called ASAP, for "aviation safety action partnership," has since 1994 provided American Airlines pilots amnesty from company and FAA discipline when they voluntarily report safety-related incidents for investigation. The program's success has inspired other airlines to initiate similar plans, and American's mechanics and dispatchers now have similar programs.

But now, renewal of the ASAP program for American Airlines pilots uncertain, due to a dispute between the airline and its pilots union. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Allied Pilots Association alleges that in some cases, the company has unfairly disciplined pilots, even when an incident was accepted for review under the program.

That, they argue, has made pilots wary of participating and could eventually increase the chances of safety breakdowns.

The cases at the center of the dispute involve incidents which were accepted for review under the ASAP program, but also reported by an outside party. Such cases are exempt from the amnesty rule, but the union claims there has always been a "gentlemens' agreement" that pilots who came forward would not be disciplined, an agreement the union claims the company has now violated.

American tells the paper such cases make up only about two percent of all ASAP incidents reported, and that of all the incidents in question, there were only five pilots disciplined. In all cases, says the carrier, that discipline was limited to a letter placed in each employees file, where it was to be removed and destroyed after two years.

The paper reports union President Lloyd Hill wrote a letter to American CEO Gerard Arpey on January 24, in which he said, "Attempting to force safe operations through punitive discipline is an ineffective approach long abandoned by experts in aviation safety." Then, perhaps conscious of the erratic performance of stocks lately, he added, "Allowing American Airlines to adopt such an approach vastly increases the risk to shareholders of a catastrophic accident."

The ASAP program for pilots at American will expire February 7, unless agreement is reached for renewal. Tom Westbrook, the union's vice president, stresses that the ASAP program issue is separate from difficult negotiations currently underway for a new pilots contract.

As ANN has reported, the current union leadership won last year's election on a promise to work aggressively to restore the pilots' profession at American, including substantial wage increases to return inflation-adjusted pilot salaries to levels of the early 1990s.

FMI: www.alliedpilots.org, www.aa.com