When the Congressional oversight committee issues a blanket statement of support for a proposed rule, one is left with the dismaying feeling the legislators don’t understand or don’t care. Such is the thought attendant to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)...
Helping Injured People And Their Loved Ones For Over 40 Years
Briefs
System Should Be Tweaked To Further Empower Families
Continental Flight 3407, just like every aviation disaster, is a terrible tragedy for all who lost loved ones and for the Buffalo community in general. And like other air disasters, including the US Air Flight 427 crash near Pittsburgh and the Pan American Flight 103...
Rule Proposed On Pilot Rest Requirements
With much public fanfare, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published recently a proposed rule to limit pilots’ duty and flight time, thereby minimizing the risk of sleepy pilots flying passengers and putting all concerned at risk. Thus, if a pilot reports to...
Fatal Accident A “Merger of Missteps”
Opening statement at 14 September hearing by Deborah Hersman Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board A little over a year ago, on August 8, 2009, a single-engine Piper aircraft that had departed Teterboro, New Jersey on its way to Ocean City, New Jersey,...
Response To Controller Fatigue Issue Largely Symbolic
With ever more reports of air traffic controllers sleeping on the job, those responsible for their work schedules are in full damage control mode. Within the past 30 days, there have been seven reports of sleeping controllers, beginning with a lone controller dozing...
Sen. Stevens Crash Underscores Dismal General Aviation Safety Record
The 10 August plane crash in the wilds of Alaska that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AL) is the latest in a long line of crashes that have killed politicians. Not that politicians as a group engage in risky behavior, but they do tend to fly more than the average...
Removal Of Lavatory Oxygen Shrouded In Speculation
The order to remove emergency oxygen from lavatories of transport-category airplanes is a done deal, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did indicate that public comments would be accepted on the matter. (See Aviation Safety Journal, March 2011, “Emergency...
Memorandum An Effort To Air Safety
For a perfectly useless document, look no further than the latest Information for Operators (InFO) published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). InFO 11007 issued on 10 March 2011 concerns “Regulatory Requirements Regarding Accommodation of Child Restraint...
Controllers Sleeping On The Job: So Is The FAA
By Gabe Bruno Executive Director FAA Whistleblowers Alliance With the political embarrassment that the recent sleeping controller reports have brought to the Obama Administration (including Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt), it...
Sleeping Controller Unaware Of Airplane Landings
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Randy Babbitt, said he is “personally outraged” that a sleeping controller in Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) tower caused two airliners to land without benefit of guidance or assistance. Perhaps the...