Trump nominee for safety board knocks Flight 3407 safety rule
That provision requires both the captain and first officer of every commercial airliner to have 1,500 hours of flying experience, up from the previous requirement of 250 hours.
In a 2010 blog post, Landsberg said there was "no factual support" calling for the 1,500-hour requirement. He noted that both the pilot and first officer of Flight 3407 had far more than 1,500 hours of flight experience, adding: "Pilots should be hired and trained by solid criteria, not arbitrary numbers."
And in another blog post two years later, he called the pilot experience requirement "a non-issue."
Hearing that, Senate Minority Leader
"It's frightening to think that
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Landsberg could not be reached for comment, and a
But Landsberg, then the president of the
In 2010, he noted that the safety board had listed several factors that led to the pilot errors that caused the crash of Flight 3407, which a now-defunct regional airline,
"Nowhere in any of this are the first officer's flight-hour qualifications mentioned as a cause or a factor, yet a law has passed addressing a non-issue," Landsburg wrote. "This non sequitur was caused by the understandable grief and outrage of the families who lost loved ones on the flight. They somehow were led to believe that the (copilot) was under-qualified and she was a proximate cause."
Landsberg, a longtime safety official with an organization that represents private and recreational pilots, returned to the pilot experience issue in a 2012 blog post.
There, he noted that the 1,500 hour requirement would make it more difficult for pilots of light general-aviation aircraft -- the kind of pilots his organization represents -- to get hired at commercial airlines. That's because the new law also required some pilot experience in environments that are similar to that of a passenger airliner.
"The
In that blog post, Landsberg echoed the central concern of the
Landsberg's point of view on that issue may turn his confirmation by the
Gillibrand said she will not support any nominee to the safety board who doesn't show support for the Flight 3407 families.
"I am appalled that a nominee to the board responsible for making recommendations to improve the safety of our national transportation system would suggest that first-officer flight-hour training is a non-issue," Gillibrand said. "It is no coincidence that we have not had a tragedy like Flight 3407 in the last eight years -- because the new rules are working, and they have made air travel safer. Now is not the time to roll them back."
If the
"Obviously we strongly disagree with his written position" on the 1,500-hour rule, said
If confirmed, though, Landsberg could prove to be one more voice in favor of cutting back on the 1,500-hour experience requirement for new commercial pilots.
Just last month, a panel advising the
And in the
Supporters of modifying the rule argue that doing so is necessary to make sure that smaller regional carriers have enough pilots to continue serving smaller communities.
But pilot unions have joined the Flight 3407 families in staunchly advocating the 1,500 hour experience requirement.
Union officials have long believed that the requirement not only puts more experienced pilots in the cockpit, but that it also forces airlines to pay pilots more than the often-paltry salaries that first officers on regional airlines usually get. The first officer of Flight 3407,
Trump nominated Landsberg for the safety board in mid-September, and his selection seemed routine at the time.
"Landsberg, an award-winning expert on pilot safety, has written hundreds of articles on aviation safety and helped develop dozens of online courses," the business aviation group said. "He also has worked with regulatory agencies and other aviation safety stakeholders, including the
But he also blogged in opposition to the 1,500-hour experience requirement for pilots -- without even mentioning the other provisions of the aviation safety law pushed into effect by the Flight 3407 families in 2010. That measure also dramatically bolstered pilot training and implemented a new regimen so that flight crews are more rested.
Landsberg will likely be forced to further explain his thoughts on that safety law at his confirmation hearing before the
While neither Schumer nor Gillibrand sits on that panel, the four other Democratic senators who wrote to Landsberg to ask him about the 1,500 hour rule -- Sens.
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