Calls For Regional Safety Improvements Up
By Frances Fiorino
Urgent calls for safety improvements in regional carrier operations are rising rapidly in the wake of the Feb. 12 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo, N.Y.
On June 10, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D), chairman of the Senate aviation subcommittee, plans to schedule the first in a series of hearings that will examine airline safety and the “urgent need” to set a single standard for regionals and major airlines.
In a May 13 letter to Colgan Air President George Casey, Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio) emphasized that the carrier deserves “a significant amount of scrutiny regarding its policies and practices.” Boccieri asked for a rundown of company policies as well as an extensive report of the minimum flight time requirements.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Airline Division and the Business Travel Coalition (BTC) have joined forces in petitioning Congress to adopt a “coherent” national air transportation policy and set a single regulatory standard for all carriers.
The current regional airline model comes under fire in the IBT/BTC’s joint analysis of the Colgan Air accident in which 50 people died. The analysis notes that regionals operate more than half of all commercial aviation departures, which are expected to increase to 268 million in 2025 from 154 million this year.
And while the carriers seek to operate efficiently, the study notes “the model itself — which appears to be compelling participants to compete themselves inexorably towards the lowest possible cost – appears incompatible with optimum safety, security and customer service.”
Many in industry and government were unaware of how regionals functioned-- or of the safety pitfalls its unique operating environment created — until the NTSB’s May 12-14 fact-finding hearing on Colgan Air Flight 3407. According to Sen. Dorgan, the hearing “disclosed some very serious problems that need to be corrected immediately.”
In testimony, a general portrait of regionals emerged: A world in which low-time, low-paid, inadequately trained, fatigued pilots are flying several legs per duty day, which can last up to 16 hours, several days a week.
Colgan Air testified it requires a minimum of 1,000 hours of total flight time plus a minimum of 100 hours of multi-engine time. Its first officers earn an average of $23 per flight hour. Captains earn $50,000-$60,000 per year.
The NTSB determined that the captain lacked training in handling the stall warning/recovery system. The Dash 8-Q400, accumulating ice, entered an unrecoverable stall and crashed into a residential neighborhood. And the first officer can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder conversing with the captain about her lack of experience in icing conditions.
As for fatigue, investigators determined that both pilots of Flight 3407 likely had insufficient rest prior to the flight. The first officer flew on a red-eye from Washington to Newark, N.J., from which Flight 3407 departed.
The environment appears in sharp contrast with that of the majors, where pilots are required to meet more rigid hiring requirements, fly less frequent flights, and receive more stringent training and higher pay.
The IBT/BTC analysis says passengers, whether flying a major or regional, have a right to expect the flights “will be operated by reasonably paid, carefully trained, fully experienced and career-oriented pilots.”
“It is important to raise awareness of safety issues, especially as industry prepares for what it sees as a coming attrition of feeder lines,” notes Louis Smith president of FltOps.com, an Internet-based professional pilot career advisory service. “The industry spends millions of dollars in the analysis, development and selection of the next generation of aircraft—but how much does it spend for the next generation of professional aviators?”
Smith notes that in 2007, smaller feeders were reducing minimum qualifications for new hires in anticipation of a pilot shortage. At the time, it was forecast that regionals would soon fall back to FAA minimum requirements, which, in turn, would result in increased training failures.
In an effort to raise safety awareness of new hires, FltOps.com in the fall plans to add a safety education feature to its career conferences. This October’s job fair will offer safety panels, including human factors issues, training technology and reviews of recent accidents.
Photo: Architect of the Capitol
