Investigation of Colgan Air Flight 3407 Focuses On Training, Records

North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan (D), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's Aviation Subcommittee (pictured right), Wednesday called on the FAA to "immediately" begin the process of changing a rule that can allow airlines to hire pilots without checking their training history beyond five years.

Dorgan made the demand at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security called to examine regional airline safety. The hearing was prompted by allegations of improper training, pilot fatigue, and other problems that may have contributed to the Colgan Air flight 3704 crash near Buffalo February 12th.

USA Today reports that in 8 of the 9 major accidents involving regional airlines over the past 10 years, at least one pilot had failed more than one checkride. The Pilot Records Improvement Act of 1996 requires regional carriers to check for failed checkrides in the previous 5 years, but according to the report, many of the pilots involved had busted a checkride outside that 5 year window. "We need to fix that and fix that soon," Dorgan said.

"There is no reason that you can learn everything there is to know about the airplane, but not the pilot."

In his prepared remarks, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told the committee: "On January 12, 2009, the FAA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding upgraded training standards for pilots, flight attendants and dispatchers."

"The aviation industry has moved to performance-based training rather than prescriptive training to reflect that the way people learn has changed," Babbitt (shown below, right) said.

"New technology, particularly simulators, allows high-fidelity training for events that we never could have trained to in the past using an aircraft, e.g., stall recovery. We now have qualitative measures to measure actual transfer of knowledge. We can determine proficiency based on performance, not just on the number of hours of training. While the major airlines are already doing this type of training, our proposed rule incorporates best practices and tools so that all operators will use the upgraded standards."

He went on to address the Pilot Records Improvement Act, saying the FAA recommends that airlines go beyond the 5 year statutory requirement. "PRIA requires carriers to obtain a limited waiver from prospective pilots allowing for the release of information concerning their current airman certificate and associated type ratings and limitations, current airman medical certificates, including any limitations, and summaries of closed FAA legal enforcement actions resulting in a finding by the Administrator of a violation that was not subsequently overturned. Although PRIA does not require carriers to obtain a release from prospective pilots for the entirety of the pilot’s airman certification file, including Notices of Disapproval for flight checks for certificates and ratings, FAA guidance suggests to potential employers that they may find this additional information helpful in evaluating the pilot. In order to obtain this additional information, a carrier must obtain a Privacy Act waiver from the pilot-applicant." The remarks were Babbitt's first official statements on these issues since being named to his post 3 weeks ago.

The bottom line is that the FAA recommends that regional carries request all records pertinent to a pilot's qualifications, but they must ask for permission from the pilots to check those records and have not made the practice mandatory. There was some finger-pointing at the hearing as well. As previously reported by ANN, acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker told the subcommittee the safety board has previously recommended that the FAA address the pilot records issue, as well as several other areas germane to the crash. Babbitt responded that the NTSB makes hundreds of recommendations, and that sometimes they require technology that does not exist or would take years to implement. Still, Babbitt said, when the FAA does not act on a recommendation, it has "an obligation to explain to the NTSB and the public why we don't adopt it."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov