ATA urges OMB to put profits before safety(IFALPA Daily News_19 September,2011)
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In the wake of the crash of Colgan 3407, the US FAA undertook a review of flight and duty time regulations in an effort to reduce the threat of fatigue on flight safety. This resulted in the FAA drafting new more stringent regulations. Under the proposed rule, pilots would be required to have "nine hours for the opportunity to rest" before reporting for flight duty, and the clock would not start ticking until he or she is "behind closed doors" in a hotel or other designated rest place, according to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. Regulations currently require flight crew members to have a minimum of 8 hr. of rest time between flight duty periods. However, the rules do not define rest time, meaning transit time from an airport to a hotel may count as rest time. "If it takes two hours to get to the hotel, you still get nine hours," he emphasized at a press conference last year after FAA issued the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on pilot fatigue and duty time.
However, in a letter sent last week to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is conducting a final review of the pilot fatigue regulations proposed last year by FAA, Air Transport Association (ATA) VP and general counsel David Berg cautioned that "the proposed rule would cost the industry nearly US$ 2billion in increased costs and lead to job cuts. Ignoring the fact that the new regulations would impact all airlines equally Berg’s letter urges the OMB to reject safety improvements in favour of airline profits.
(IFALPA Daily News 19 September,2011)
