US House of Representatives passes Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009

The United States House of Representatives has passed the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009.

The Bill – which was passed 409-11 – is intended, among other things, to beef up regulations on pilot qualifications, pilot training, pilot work schedules, and to formulate new strategies to deal with pilot fatigue.

The Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009 also stipulates that the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) teach the pilots safety manoeuvres in the event of an aircraft stalling. Furthermore, airlines are required to disclose on a passenger’s ticket whether he will be travelling on a separate commuter-plane company which has been contracted by the bigger commercial-airline firm.

Lawmakers are of the opinion that these changes have been long overdue, particularly with regard to short-haul commuter flights.

The new Act is in response to the crash of the Continental Airlines Flight 3407 near Buffalo-Niagara International Airport in New York on February 12, 2009, in which 49 people on the plane and one person on the ground lost their lives.

Other accidents in which regional airlines have been involved also motivated the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009.

It was revealed, during a testimony at a Congressional hearing on the accident, that the Captain and the First Officer of the Continental Airlines Flight 3407 had made a series of critical mistakes that had led to the deadly crash.

Initial investigations into the ill-fated flight, which was operated by Colgan Air, suggested that the pilots may have been tired and also may not have been trained sufficiently to deal with a mid-air stall.

The new Act requires that all pilots who fly for a passenger-carrying airline possess an Air Transport Pilot certificate – this, in effect, raises the number of flying hours that an entry-level airline pilot should have from the present 250 hours to as much as 1,500 hours.

The Act also allows the Federal Aviation Administration to credit course work at designated flight-training schools to fulfill the requirements to receive an Air Transport certificate. (Flight-training schools had expressed concern that aspiring pilots might forsake schooling in order to focus on amassing flying time.)

Representative Chris Lee (Republican-New York) and Representative Brian Higgins (Democrat-New York), who are representing the Congressional districts covering Western New York, had ardently pushed for the passage of the airline safety and pilot training improvement Bill in the House of Representatives.