Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The Federal Aviation Administration was expected on Wednesday to release new rules to prevent accidents in commercial airlines due to pilot fatigue.
The announcement comes four months after a congressionally prescribed deadline and more than a year after lawmakers passed legislation strengthening air safety, including a requirement that the FAA reform decades-old flight-and-duty time regulations and set minimum rest requirements for pilots.
The Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act was enacted in August last year, largely in response to a crash near Buffalo, NY, in 2009 that killed 50 people. Under the measure, which passed by a unanimous House vote, commercial carriers have to submit and regularly update a fatigue risk management plan, which the FAA will approve every two years.
In addition, the FAA is required to issue regulations within a year of the law’s enactment, limiting the number of flight and duty hours allowed for pilots based on the time of the flight and time zone. The new FAA regulations would remove distinctions between operations of domestic and flag carriers.
Budgetary considerations at the Transportation Department had delayed the release of new rules preventing sleepless pilots from going on duty.
Airlines for America, formerly the Air Transport Association of America, had lobbied against the regulations, saying these would “add significant operational and scheduling complexity that will adversely affect our crews and customers.” Officials belonging to the group testified before Congress against adopting a “one-size fits all” approach to the problem.
Pilot fatigue was found to have contributed to the crash of Continental Airlines Flight 3407 in February 2009 into a home in Clarence Center, about five miles from Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. All 45 passengers and four crew members on the plane died, and another person on the ground was killed.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the captain of the aircraft operated by Colgan Air had inappropriately responded to a warning system that switches off autopilot and alerts the pilot that the plane is about to stall.
“Colgan Air did not proactively address the pilot fatigue hazards associated with operations at a predominantly commuter base,” the NTSB had said.
The agency found that the first officer who co-piloted the plane had “commuted through the night” from Seattle to Newark, from which flight 3407 departed. She sent “multiple texts” throughout the day of the crash, indicating that she may have not had adequate rest.
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