In an effort to increase the amount of experience required for airline pilots, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3371, the “Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009.” Many organizations, including the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), applauded the bill’s passing by the House, but not everyone is happy.
The primary element of the bill requires all pilots to hold an FAA Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) license and have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight time to pilot part 121 commercial aircraft (most commercial airplanes). Legislators, including Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and ranking GOP members, are happy to see the bill pass, as they say it will make the skies safer.
Yet the new bill puts a challenge on student pilots who wish to pilot airliners in the future. Some students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University expressed concerns about the bill, as most graduating seniors have not fulfilled the ATP 1,500 hour requisite. Approximately 25 percent of commercial airline pilots have graduated from Embry-Riddle.
The new bill could potentially force student pilots to get their flight instructor ratings, which many students hope to get, to reach the 1,500-hour mark.
Although countless pilots are frequently furloughed, there is a shortage looming on the horizon. FAA statistics have shown that the number of issued pilot’s licenses is decreasing. Experts predict, based on FAA statistics, there will be a heavy demand for pilots in the forthcoming decades. The new bill would add yet another hurdle to the dilemma of becoming an airline pilot, likely lowering the number even further.
Most of today’s pilots fly because they really want to. Already, airline pilots have seen pension plans decrease a significant amount, pay fall to unbelievably low ($16,000 p/year for some), and an increase in the number of flights they fly.
Will the new bill be as safe as legislators make it out to be? A pilot could easily rack up hours through “pattern-work”, or practicing takeoffs and landings over-and-over, in a Cessna 172 to get their ATP. Although hours usually means experience, would the new bill make pilots any safer?
This bill is thought to be the result of Colgan Air flight 3407, the flight that crashed in Buffalo, NY, after an NTSB report showed that both pilots had little experience.
Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot that landed US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River, argued that the bill is necessary. In his book, “Highest Duty,” Sullenberger concludes that more hours make a safer pilot – which most pilots will agree with.
What do you think? Will the new bill make pilots safer, or is it just another hurdle?
That’s a bit steep, raise the limit for sure, but ATP is a lot of time and money that young pilots can’t afford.
While this may make the skies safer now its going to be harder and more expensive to become a pilot.