It all began last month with the White House’s infrastructure plan that included severing the decades old ties between the FAA and its air traffic control system. President Trump said he supported the split, an effort that would be financed by user fees. Obviously no one, except the airlines pretty much support the effort. Then came the FAA Reauthorization bill to keep the FAA alive past September 30. The House of course thinks their version, including a privatized ATC system, is the best answer. The Senate did not agree.
From the Senate came John Thune’s suggestion to consider hiring pilots based on the quality of their flight experience, not simply the quantity of their logged hours, as currently demanded by the 1,500-hour rule. The result of the South Dakota Senator’s plan was a firestorm calling for everything just short of burning his likeness in effigy. Of course none of the hysterics had any resemblance with the facts. Take a look and you’ll see what the Senator actually proposed.
It amazes me that Republican, Democrat or Independent, could possibly lose by sitting down and talking about just the possibility of a more effective method of hiring the best pilots to keep the flying public safe, especially since we’ve all been living with a Congressionally mandated hiring rule that’s drastically altered the regional airline industry. How do we reconcile the fact that both sides believe they have the best interests of aviation safety on their side of the argument as ALPA explained in a recent story.
Finally there’s my friend, veteran journalist Kathryn Creedy, a seasoned journalist from South Florida, with a perspective she synthesized from months of Washington blabber about pilot hiring and aviation safety. She mentioned this story to me over lunch a few weeks ago in St. Maarten, before we took part in a journalist forum at the Caribbean Aviation Conference and I must admit, as an old-ALPA member myself I was intrigued by what she had to say.
Enough from me. Read the story we called, “Do ALPA’s Efforts Threaten Advances in Aviation Safety?” and tell us both what you think.
Rob Mark, Publisher
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“I who was raised a staunch union supporter and former union member am ashamed of the Air Line Pilots Association. I believe it has traded its credibility to achieve a financial goal, something it accuses its opponents of doing,” Kathryn Creedy
A glimmer of progress toward advancing both airline safety and addressing the abandonment of nearly 50 communities appeared recently with a bi-partisan effort to expand training options for prospective airline pilots as proposed in both the House and the Senate and was, in fact, passed by the Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure as part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization legislation.
“The amendment would allow prospective pilots to receive credit toward flight-hour requirements if taking structured and disciplined training courses and if completion of those training courses will enhance safety more than unstructured accumulation of flight hours,” Senator John Thune (R-SD) said. [Read more…] about Have ALPA’s Efforts Actually Threatened Advances in Aviation Safety