One year after the deadly crash of a Continental Connection commuter plane revealed serious gaps in safety practices between the major scheduled airlines and their regional air carrier partners, many of those gaps remain, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Pilots on regional carriers often fly longer hours for less pay than their major-airline counterparts and commute long distances to their jobs, factors that can contribute to pilot fatigue. The NTSB found that pilot fatigue contributed to several non-fatal incidents involving regional airliners in the months following the Feb. 12, 2009, crash near Buffalo, N.Y., including a plane that skidded off the runway after landing in unsafe conditions at Traverse City, Mich., and a plane bound for Hilo, Hawaii, that overshot its destination and flew 18 miles over open ocean before the pilots awoke and corrected their course.
The Federal Aviation Administration has responded to NTSB recommendations issued in the wake of the crash by getting several regional carriers to agree to voluntary improvements in safety practices and work rules, but new regulations to deal with the most critical safety issues raised by the crash are still being drafted, and their implementation could be years away. Both airlines and pilot groups have resisted efforts to mandate shorter work hours for regional airline pilots in the past.
"Here we are, almost a year later, and fundamentally nothing has changed in terms of the conditions that caused that accident," former NTSB board member Kitty Higgins told The Associated Press. "The only thing that has changed is public awareness."
Legislation requiring the FAA to take faster action to close the safety gap passed the House last year but is stalled in the Senate over unrelated issues.
Written by Sandy Smith
For HULIQ.com
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