Senate, House Agree to Sixfold Boost in Airline Pilots' Flight Experience

[bemildred]

Source: Bloomberg

U.S. pilots would need at least 1,500 hours of flight experience to get a job in an airline cockpit, six times the current minimum requirement, under a House-Senate agreement disclosed by a passenger advocacy group.

The agreement, part of broader aviation legislation being negotiated in Congress, was outlined by Senator Jay Rockefeller to relatives of victims in a fatal crash near Buffalo, New York, last year, according to Scott Maurer, whose daughter was killed in the accident, and who attended today’s meeting in Washington.

The deal is “very positive” and is among safety changes that “should have been happening” more than a year ago, said Kevin Kuwik of Columbus, Ohio, who said he was dating Lorin Maurer, one of 50 victims in the Feb. 12, 2009, crash of Pinnacle Airlines Corp.’s Colgan unit.

Boosting the minimum required pilot experience from 250 hours has been a top goal of friends and relatives of people who died when the plane crashed in Clarence Center, near Buffalo. Airline pilot unions and House Democrats also pushed for the higher requirement, saying it would lessen the chance of a repeat of the Colgan accident.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-20/senate-house-agree-to-sixfold-boost-in-airline-pilots-flight-experience.html

[w4rma]

1. Anything on raising their pay? (nt)

[PJPhreak]

2. My thoughts exactly! Nt

[RC]

3. Of course not. That money is earmarked for management bonuses.

[naaman fletcher]

4. This will raise their pay, that's the point.

It reduces competition.

[rsmith6621]

9. No Worries...Some People Dont Have a Clue About ...

...How the industry works and how it got to be the $hitHole biz it has become....

[harmonicon]

5. what crap

That makes as much sense as requiring 15 years of driver's ed because one time someone in their 30's was responsible for a fatal accident.

[customerserviceguy]

6. I tend to agree with you

This talks about "getting a job in an airline cockpit". That could be talking about a navigator or co-pilot, and while I want a senior pilot to have some decent experience, I don't begrudge the junior members of a flight crew having a bit less time in the air.

[skepticscott]

8. I have to agree also

There have been plenty of airplane crashes involving more experienced pilots. This is largely a case of a couple of victims of a particular incident making more noise about what they perceive as the heart of the problem than anyone else has before.

[conscious evolution]

7. Does this new reg

cover pilots for all classifications of airlines?Does it cover the majors and the smaller regionals both?