Catching Up: Sept 14
There is a bit to mention from last week and for the start of this week.
In last Sunday’s Washington Post, I saw a good question and answer in the Travel Section. The question was about safely flying with a toddler and the answer included this FAA link, which is quite helpful and I like to see it mentioned.
Thankfully, the hijacking of AeroMexico Flight 576 last Wednesday was over rather quickly(via CNN). The Bolivian man responsible has been charged (via the AP). He is said to have a history of drug addiction and claimed to have acted from a divine revelation.
Fatigue
The Wall Street Journal reports that portions of the airline industry, including the Air Line Pilots Association, have been involved in the FAA review of pilot fatigue. The suggestions will be presented in a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, to be published before the end of the year (via ALPA).
Motivated by the initial findings of the Flight 3407 crash investigation, the fatigue rules will likely aim to eliminate ambiguity about fitness on the job. But, as I read the articles in the Buffalo News, I can’t help but notice that these are corporate culture issues more than anything else. While new rules should help, there needs to be more internal airline policy and practice review if they truly care about some of the things brought to light in this case. You can see the article about pressures Colgan pilots (the subcontractor for Continental Express) felt they were under (via Buffalo News). And, the Continental pilots’ views as well (via Buffalo News).
Family Assistance Workshop
This week, the American Association of Airport Executives is hosting a two-day Family Assistance Workshop at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority training facility in Washington DC. NADA/F’s own Gail Dunham and Matt Ziemkiewicz will be participating, along with some of our other members, in one of the panel discussions. The program is to help airports develop their NTSB mandated plan to deal with catastrophic events, which includes dealing with victim’s families. I am confident that our experience and insight will prove valuable to the workshop participants.
Briefly:
- Last Wednesday, in Coolidge, Arizona, there was a midair collision that resulted in one of the planes crashing and one fatality (via KPHO). The NTSB is investigating.
- FAA Chief spoke about gaps in pilot professionalism at the FAA International Safety Forum, last Thursday (via the AP).
- The FAA Reauthorization Bill could be stalled by a tiff over repairs (via ASTA SmartBrief). But, as stated before, there are several reasons a long term authorization may be delayed. . .
