Schumer, Higgins Say ICAO Should Adopt Training Standards Similar To New FAA Requirements

Two New York Democratic legislators are calling on the FAA to press the ICAO to adopt its recently-released standards for pilot training in the wake of the Asiana Airlines accident in San Francisco.

In a joint news release, Senator Charles Shumer (D-NY) (pictured) and Congressman Brian Higgins (D-NY) say that the accident and the other recent crashes like Colgan Flight 3407 "demonstrate a troubling pattern in which pilots are mishandling air speed, which can lead to fatal stalls. We have new, tighter pilot safety standards that beef up pilot training requirements set to take effect later this year, and we’re asking that these regulations be implemented immediately.

We’re also asking the FAA to review bilateral agreements and push these standards at the United Nations to ensure American passengers traveling in and out of the country have properly-trained pilots. Simply put: foreign airlines should require their pilots to undergo rigorous training, just as we are now making American pilots do, before flying in the U.S. If not, the FAA should consider limiting that carrier’s ability to fly in and out of the United States.”

Schumer and Higgins commended the FAA for swiftly putting in place new rules on pilot fatigue and today publishing an important rule on pilot certification, but said American passengers still await the completion of rules that will set new minimum standards on crewmember training, safety management systems, and flight simulation training standards and urged the FAA to expedite the finalization of those rules. One of those rules, the crewmember training standards, is due on October 1st.

Schumer and Higgins are also asking the FAA, along with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), to begin a comprehensive review of bilateral airline safety agreements with foreign countries and assess the broader international aviation safety framework. With the new standards passed in the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Extension Act set to take effect, the United States is poised to be a leader in aviation safety. Schumer and Higgins want to make sure that reciprocal agreements with foreign air carriers guarantee that pilots flying into and out of the United States undergo the same training as U.S. pilots. They are asking the FAA and ICAO and other major State aviation authorities to identify and prepare our international aviation partners to bring parity to their training systems and procedures. Schumer and Higgins said that the FAA has the authority to ban international carriers, as it did with Korean Air in 2001, and should exercise that authority if it finds that foreign pilots do not meet U.S. training standards.

FMI: www.schumer.senate.gov, http://higgins.house.gov