Promoting Professionalism in the Industry
The best safety device on any airplane is a well trained, well rested, highly motivated pilot. A safety culture at an airline must be instilled and consistently reinforced from the highest levels within the organization. An organizational safety culture will encourage the highest levels of performance among professional pilots.
This high level emphasis must go hand-in-hand with appropriate training. Standard operating procedures must be just that; they should be the operating norm for all flight crewmembers and deviations should not be allowed except for extraordinary circumstances. Pilots-in-command should be encouraged to mentor their first officers and instill in them the desire to maintain the highest standards of operational safety.
ALPA offers professional standards programs and structure which reinforce professional conduct in the cockpit. Similarly, airlines need to provide special command training courses for new captains to instill in them the necessary traits to be a real leader on the flight deck. In addition to basic required skills such as aeronautical decision making and crew resource management, new captains should receive training to reinforce the skills, aptitudes, and character necessary to properly lead a crew, exercise command authority, and maintain the highest levels of safety in the face of internal or external pressures that may tend to lower operational safety margins.
In the case of the Colgan Air accident, the pilot group was new to ALPA, and unfortunately the professional standards structure was just being established.
Mentoring Programs
In addition to promoting professional conduct among crewmembers, at least one airline whose pilots ALPA represents has a detailed, structured, pilot-mentoring program. This program provides a wide variety of resources and benefits to new-hire crewmembers as they become acquainted with their airline and becoming an airline pilot. The program pairs experienced line pilots with new hire pilots in an effort to answer many of the frequently asked questions, such as bidding, jump seat travel, vacation, etc., from new hires. Pilot mentors also assist new hires as they transition from the training environment to flying the line, and throughout their first, probationary year. There is also another aspect of the program that assigns a senior captain or check airman to newly upgraded captains once they are online and out on their own. This greatly assists new captains as they become accustomed to requirements for command.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In conclusion, ALPA believes that it is essential, and long overdue, that the flight and duty time rules for commercial aviation operations be revised based on readily available science. Issues that must be addressed include providing crewmembers a minimum rest period that will allow an opportunity for 8 hours of sleep, and there should be provisions for operations on the back side of a pilot’s circadian rhythms. Additionally, a pilot’s duty day length should be based on when the day begins and how many flight segments are scheduled.
In regard to training, we feel there should be more stringent academic requirements in FAR Part 121 to obtain both commercial and airline transport pilot ratings. Airlines should provide specific command training courses for new captains to instill in them the necessary skills and traits to be a real leader on the flight deck. Airlines should also implement mentoring programs for both captains and first officers as they first enter operations in their crew position to help them become comfortable and reinforce the knowledge and skills learned in training and apply them to line operations.
Airline training needs to account for the source of their pilots and assume the minimum experience level. There should be structured, in-depth oversight of code-share partners by the major carriers to include periodic safety audits of flight operations, training programs, and maintenance and inspection. The best practices in use by major carriers need to be mentored into their smaller code share partners.
Safety data provided through important data sharing programs such as FOQA and ASAP needs to be vigorously protected from inappropriate use and preserved for the sole purpose of improving safety and operational efficiency. Further, these programs need to be promoted at all levels of the industry.
Finally, airline managements and their pilots should work closely together to promote policies and practices that instill a strong safety culture throughout the organization; reinforce the importance of professionalism in all aspects of operations; and recognize the value of well trained, well rested, and highly motivated employees.
Thank you, again, for the opportunity to testify today. I would be pleased to address any questions that you may have.