Bruce Landsberg Faces First Confirmation Hearing

Following an accident in 2009 which fatally injured 50 people aboard a Colgan Air airliner, the U.S. Congress put in place new requirements for airline pilots requiring a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight time to become a First Officer for an airline. Previously, that lower limit was 250 hours. Military pilots can qualify for an airline position with 750 hours, and graduates of a four-year college program can qualify with 1,000 hours.

Bruce Landsberg, nominated by President Donald Trump to fill an opening on the National Transportation Safety Board, has been openly critical of that requirement as an official of AOPA. On Tuesday, he was grilled about that criticism at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Landsberg was a flight instructor in the U.S. Air Force. He has consulted with the FAA and the NTSB on safety issues and ways to prevent fatal accidents. But at the hearing, Landsberg held firm to his position that regulations should be performance-based, not a "one-size-fits-all" rule, according to a report from USA Today.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, (D-IL) said that the rule has improved safety, and pointed to the perfect record for airlines since the rule was put in place. In the eight years prior to the law being enacted, there were 154 airline accidents, she said. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta has also said that the 1,500 rule has improved airline safety.

But regional airlines say that the requirements are making it difficult to hire enough pilots for the routes they fly, and pilot unions say that reducing the requirement would help in pilot recruitment. Relatives of those fatally injured in the Colgan accident have remained adamant that there be no relaxation of the rules.

The Senate version of the FAA reauthorization bill would allow classroom education to substitute for some of the flight time requirements, but the full Senate has yet to act on the measure. The change has been opposed by Democrats in the Senate.

During the hearing, Landesberg said that he is in favor of high standards for airline pilots, but that different people take different paths to reach that level of competency. "I think it becomes no degradation of safety — that’s my litmus test — that people can meet the performance requirements as opposed to just saying you have to have 1,500 hours no matter what," he said.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original Report