ATP Requirement, Training, Safety Management Systems, and NTSB Recommendations on Group’s Radar
Buffalo, New York- January 6, 2012 – As the Christmas season officially comes to an end on the proverbial twelfth day, the sisters of Flight 3407 victim Mary Abraham recognized the progress made by the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration in 2011, and challenged Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta to continue to step up and meet key deadlines on Congressionally-mandated aviation safety reforms in 2012. Many key milestones revolve around August 1, 2012, the two year anniversary of the date that President Obama signed the ‘Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010’ into law.
“We would always take special sister trips and shopping sprees, and the December ones were extra special because it was the Christmas season and we included our mom for her birthday. And of course there was the apple souffle that Mary would always make on Christmas morning,” shared her sisters Ruthann Stilwell and Tina Siniscalco. “We still have the pan she made it in, we still have the recipe, but it is just not the same without her. We miss her so much. Now all we can do is hope that our government takes aggressive steps to ensure that no regional airline is ever allowed to perpetrate a breach of safety like this again. We are encouraged by steps taken in 2011 regarding code share disclosure by all ticketing agencies, and of course by the release of a long-overdue final rule on pilot flight and duty time. Now we call on Secretary LaHood and Administrator Huerta to not take their foot off the gas in 2012, with key initiatives regarding pilot qualifications, training, and safety management systems on the horizon. And we are going to fight to ensure that the FAA has acceptable responses to each and every safety recommendation made by the NTSB in its final report on Flight 3407.”
The landmark aviation safety legislation passed by Congress in 2010 contained numerous safety reforms intended to address the deficiencies that led to the tragedy of Continental Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air. Congress called on the FAA to issue stronger regulations regarding pilot training, scheduling, and qualifications, and mandated additional measures to ensure that all regional airlines invest in safety and training programs in a manner comparable to the major carriers. The FAA was also required to release a yearly report on the status of all outstanding NTSB safety recommendations, which it recently did. The family group’s push for action on these safety initiatives is part of their ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ campaign, highlighting key elements of their ‘One Level of Safety’ drive for all passengers traveling on the nation’s regional airlines, which now account for over half of all commercial flights operated in the United States