out of every four commercial airports in this country are served exclusively by regional airlines. our airline as you have indicated largely operate in seeing this partnership with the major airlines. regional airlines provide the crew in the aircraft a major airline said the flight schedules, the fares, and the customer service policies. ..

>> and address any issue that can even be perceived as a contributing factor to an accident. second, we will conduct a thorough review of fatigue, looking at all the human factors in the scientific field to minimize the risks associated with fatigue. third, we will implement a fatigue awareness management program so that our airlines keep this issue top this issue top of the mind for both our flight crews and just as importantly, airline management at fourth, we will reach out in partnership with you in congress, across the government and in our fellow stakeholders

and throughout the aviation industry to explore the full range of issues which could help us improve safety and prevent future accidents. and among those are, number one, established a single integrated faa database of pilot records. second, explore random fatigue testing. third, examined the practice of commuting. forth, extend the period for background checks from five to 10 years. and fifth, seek to analyze the information from cockpit voice recorders and setting other than accident investigations. and mind all this terrific data object rides to look for trends to help prevent future accidents. mr. chairman, regional airline association thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and for opening a dialogue on these critical issues. we look forward to keeping you

informed, and i welcome any questions you might have. >> mr. cohen, thank you very much for your testimony. next we will hear from captain john freighter, the president of the airline pilots association. >> thank you chairman dorgan. we commend his committee for calling this hearing to take a closer look at some of the critical issues affecting airline pilots and our charges. many of these issues, pilot screening and hiring standards, training and mentoring were at the top of the agenda at the faa's call to action summit in which we participated on monday. while this meeting was a critical first step toward developing solutions to these problems, we encourage the faa to take a more structured approach in working with the airlines and labor to establish and agree to implementation plan for all parties to adopt. in recent years, we have to look more at the system. the major airlines have come to rely heavily on coal chaired

arrangements with the so-called regional airlines to connect large, midsize and small cities in the u.s., and canada, and mexico to their international hubs are this is resulted in the exponential growth of the regional sector of the industry. still the major carriers exert a great deal, almost total pressure on the regional airlines to provide their service at the lowest possible price. they control ticket pricing and schedules, and they regularly move flying between their regional partners. this exacerbates breaking the chain of pilot experience. couple that with 160 or more bankruptcies in the airline industry, and airline pilots leading the industry because of there's been no way to protect and repaint that experience in the cockpit. we start over again and again. some of the major airlines even today are outsourcing their blind to the regionals, and laying off their own pilots

losing those of decades of experience in the profession. these experienced pilots cannot afford to work for one of these so-called regional carriers as a newly hired first officer. as a result, many other smaller regional carriers higher pilots near the faa minimum standards, and do not employ adequate screening processes during hiring that identify the ideal candidate. as was brought out during the ntsb's recent hearing on the tragic accident in buffalo, many pilots who fly for the regional airlines are not getting adequate training or enough rest. airlines are requiring pilots to work longer days and more of them each month. fleet and frequent base changes are forcing pilots to decide between commuting or possibly taking another pay cut to train on new equipment. the consequences, the quality of airline pilot careers has been greatly diminished and the severe erosion of benefits and quality of life are motivating

experienced aviators to move to other professions. current training practices do not take into account the drastic change in pilot applicants experience. instead, they assume that pilots are far more experienced than they may actually be. there must be a new focus on standardization and even on fundamental flying skills. to meet this challenge, airlines and other training providers must develop methodologies to train for that lack of experience and to train for judgment. current training practices may also need to be adjusted to account for the source and the experience level of that new pilot entering into initial training with his or her airline. albaugh also believes there should be more stringent academic requirements to obtain both commercial and airline transport pilot ratings in preparation to start a career as an airline pilot. the faa should develop and implement a structured and rigorous ground school and

testing procedures for pilots who want to qualify to fly for 121 airlines. alpa also recommends that airlines provide specific command and leadership training courses for new captains to instill in them the necessary skills and trades to be a real leader on the flight deck. airlines and should also implement mentoring programs for both captains and first officers as they first enter operations into new crew positions to help them apply the knowledge and skills to line operations, from their more experienced peers. flight experience and pilot capabilities cannot be measured by mere flight hours. we must remember that each and every pilot out there today has met the faa standards, has met and trained and exceeded the standards of their airline who is responsible for certifying them. turn to another area of concern. for two decades you have heard me and my predecessors speak

about the problem of pilot fatigue. it's time. we need to address those rules and we need to change them. other means to enhance safety and improve airline operations, we agree with mr. may. data collection and analysis programs such as foqa. we need to share that information across the industry and then modify our practices to make sure that the best practices are being used by the entire family of airlines. in order to allow those programs to grow and make these report more readily at table, additional legislative protections will be needed to limit the use of a sap and foqa data and satellite are the cases and to ensure that information is used to increase safety. the best safety device on an airplane is a well-trained, well rested, highly motivated pilot. a strong safety culture must be instilled and consistently reinforced from the highest levels within an airline, and

among its co- shared regional partners. thank you for the opportunity to address your. i will be ready to take any questions. >> thank you very much, captain prater. and finally we will hear from mr. maurer, who is a representative of the families oof continental flight 3407. mr. maurer, i know that your daughter lauren was a passenger on that flight and i know that it is likely difficult for you to speak publicly about these issues, but on behalf of the families i believe that all of you wanted an opportunity to do that. i am pleased to give you the opportunity, and our thoughts and sympathies are with you and the families. >> thank you, and bear with me. on behalf of the families of flight 3407 we would like to thank you, chairman dorgan, and drinking miniter senator demint and all of the other subcommittee member of aviation for the opportunity to speak with you today. my name is scott maurer, and you have heard, my daughter lorin maurer was a passenger on continental flight 3407.

tomorrow night at 10:17 it will be 18 weeks since our lives were changed forever. the minutes, hours, days and weeks that have passed since this tragedy have been an unbelievable nightmare for all of us. it's a pain that you will never know. and certainly one we hope no one else will face. we believe very strongly the crash did not have to happen, and was preventable. as such, we are here today and will be here tomorrow and beyond to ask for your help and push for change so that other families can be spared this pain your when my 30 year old daughter lorin maurer, and athletics fundraiser at princeton university, and future athletic trekker, purchased her ticket from continental airlines, she assumed the pilots would fly that plane were competently trained. she thought they had significant experience and knowledge of the plane, and all of the flight

control features. as she took her seat and three a four and exciting valentine weekend to join her boyfriend, kevin jewett, in buffalo, i'm sure she she believed the pilots at the controls had been trained to handle cold-weather flight conditions, stalls, and other emergency situations that all pilots are expected to be prepared to confront. there are many other examples i could share from the victim's perspective, but time limits will not allow today. the critical message i do want to relate to you here today is that what the american public buys a ticket from an airline, they assume and expect that safety -- that their safety is in good hands here sadly, we find that that is not always the case, and we are here today imploring you for assistance and action. so how can you help? number one, let's put the best pilots in the cockpit and set

them up for success here this sounds very simple, but in reality it takes money to do this. and the airline industry has not stepped up to the plate or pilot hiring procedures, training, fatigue management and compensation have all been discussed throughout these hearings. the media attention focused on the failures of golden hair and its flight crew have resulted in a hastily summoned me call earlier this week bringing together representatives of the faa and the airline industry to discuss these very same issues. unfortunately, the meetings of this magnitude have been done before resulting in little change. as the costs have always been too high for implementation. to break down the bureaucratic logjam, the families of the victims are now forced to ask congress to intervene, and do the right thing for public safety.

number two, better aviation oversight by the federal government. americans believe that the role of the faa is that the gatekeeper. an agency that is technically trained and expertly qualified to watch over the airline industry for the safety of the american public. we have certainly identified leagues in this dyke. while we are optimistic that the newly appointed administrator hears our pleas for action, we fear that the obstacles thrown up by the airline industry and pilot unions will be very hard to overcome. again, we are asking for congressional intervention. as history of these organizations voluntarily taking action to improve safety has been woefully inadequate. number three, ntsb recommendations, why are we willing to accept an 85% implementation rate of interest the recommendations by the faa went 100% would save lives?

would i even be sitting here talking to you today had previous recommendations for training and cold-weather flight management been enacted on. these recommendations must be taken seriously. enacted on jointly by the faa and the ntsb. we must learn from accident so we can prevent future or current. my wife, terri, my son christopher, and lord boyfriend kevin miss her every minute of every day. i will not have the opportunity to walk my daughter down the aisle and give her away in marriage. she will not experience the joy of a growing child within and raising a loving family as we did. our traditional christmas eve visit to new york city for some last minute shopping and taking

in mass at saint patrick's cathedral will probably come to an end this year. it will be too painful to make that trip without lauren. many of my fellow crash victim families sitting behind me also have similar stories and similar losses were so now it's up to you to make a difference. everyone in this room today, and those who were here last wednesday, expressed that they have come before you to make the necessary changes in safety. winter is coming. if we do not implement critical safety changes before then, and another accident occurs, we can only blame ourselves for the losses of those families. i do not wish to shoulder that burden, and hope and believe that you agree with me. mr. chairman, ranking member senator demint and all the other aviation committee members,

thank you for your time. i am open also to answer any questions. >> mr. mayor, thank you very much. i indicated in the last hearing that i have some discomforts about a good many things here. reading the transcript of the cockpit recording, demonstrated to me a number of errors occurred, a number of deficiencies occurred in the management of that flight. i also said that young copilot and pilot perished in that accident as well, and they are not here to speak, they are not here to speak for themselves. they have families who miss them terribly. so i am discomforted by that, and yet we have no choice but to proceed aggressively to find out what are the standards here. are these accident, was this an accident that could have been prevented. how do we prevent future

accidents in circumstances like this. that the ask a few questions if i might. my understanding, i would say to mr. may and mr. cohen, my understanding is we are hiring pilots to put in the cockpit of commercial airlines with 30, 50, 80, 90 passengers behind the cockpit. we are hiring some of them for $10 an hour, is that correct? >> mr. chairman, the pay, the average pay a regional airline captain is $72000 per year. the average pay of a first officer at an rar is a $32000 a year. that is very copper bowl to other professions that have lives at stake. ethical assistance. >> mr. kohl, i am asking, is it the case that we are hiring pilots to put in the cockpit of commercial airplanes and paying them 22, $23000 a year?

that's $10 an hour, roughly. isn't that the case? and if that's the case, one wonders, what is the capability of pilots who are coming out of school with a good many hours, meet the technical qualifications, get hired for $10 a hour and then live with the eric in seattle and fly to newark, and at that salary they're going to rent a hotel to get some sleep, don't think so. so my question is, very specific question. isn't there a significant issue here about experience and funding and salaries at the entry-level on some some of these airplanes where we are getting, all of us are getting on. the name is the same. its northwest. its continental, delta. the same name just a different carrier with a completely different standard is seems to me of hiring new pilots that are entering the cockpit. am i wrong about that? >> mr. chairman, let me -- i

think i heard a couple of questions in there. let me just try to expand on a couple of things. first of all and most importantly, compensation and safety are not related. the ntsb has never in all of its accident investigations ever cited compensation for pay as a causal factor, even a contributing factor to an aircraft accident. the pay is fair and competitive in a very difficult industry. i'm a veteran of the industry, and i will tell you that as captain prater pointed out, it is a very difficult industry. the pay and training, the opportunity that person comes into, that they are proficient. that they are well-trained. that we would not put that

person in charge of that airplane, in charge of that crew, the safety of that. we would not, if that person worked well trained and prepared. >> well, let me ask, do you have the chart? let me ask a question of captain prater. this chart shows a committee for but i assume it applies to most airlines. people flying all over to get to their duty station. that shows newark and it shows the pilots where they are living in order to fly to newark to get to a decent station. you might say it's always been that way. people have to be on their own. to have you got rest and so on. but this case had a copilot that flew all night long to get to her duty station. and so does that make sense? >> it makes sense, and i agree with you that that is, represents the reality of our

air transportation system and our pilots. however, i think we have to take a very close look again at the system that has created this. you can't open and closed domiciles on a regular basis and transfer flying and layoff pilots at one airline and not give them some ability to either move to their station or get to work. even if i'm based in houston and the company needs me out of newark, they will deadhead me to newark. they will get me to where i should start my flight. there is a huge responsibility that professional aviators take very near and dear. none of us get into the cockpit believing that we are going to fail that they. every one of these aviators faced the weather, the same whether, and the same situation, engines fail. we have emergencies, and our pilots do it. >> but with very different skills and experience, do you agree? >> yes, without a doubt.

>> look, i have very limited time. i'm going to stay here and ask all my question at the end of this. i don't want to abuse my colleagues, but the question of why the record, captain prater did you have a problem if we know anything about an airplane that a potential employer should know everything about a pilots wreckers? >> i believe that the record act can be improved. i do think that history and performance is necessary and good, but don't look at that as the entire story. we are constantly going through training and must meet the standards every month, every week, every year. so just like when you create an airplane, you test it to distraction. as pilots, we are trained to appoint outside of what we can do. we must find our limit. you must push pilots in their training to be able to meet and succeed, but many times that

takes a lot of training, more than we're getting today. >> you seem to imply in your testimony that there was to standards with respect to commercial -- exceeded, commercial aviation. what would be the trunk carriers and the other the regional. do you believe there are two standards in the cockpit? >> i will say it succinctly. we have one level of regulation. we do not have one level of safety. >> so different levels of enforcement. do you agree with that? >> mr. chairman, i do agree to this extent. 4121 is a single standard that the faa is promulgated to which we all must adhere. i don't think there is any question that mainline carriers exceed that for 21 days, far more often than most. >> but that would exist in law or rule is relevant only to the extent you have a federal agency that says, you know what, we're going to force you to own up and we're going to enforce it and enforce it aggressively.

>> that is correct. >> t. believe that is the case now? >> i think we could have greater enforcement now and if the committee in the faqs, you can even change some of the parameters. we have suggested, as i said in my testimony today, you ought to have focal programs, asap programs required as part of the base. i think you can use aqp programs on training. i think there are a number of issues on pilot records that you can resolve. all of those things could be done to further improve the environment. >> one final point. mr. cohen, and mr. mayne as i indicated when i started this hearing, i want to invite the folks that run the carriers themselves to come to the table. we have made some invitations, and apparently, if not have not had except as. they will be accepted and have another hearing. expect mr. chairman, you have our commitment. whoever you want, whenever you

what we will provide an. >> thank you very much. senator demint. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think we need to get a little more specific, and mr. may, i appreciate you mentioning specifics about maybe what we can do with training. but what i am not hearing here today are specific ideas about what do we need to change to prevent something like this from happening again. i mean, there's got to be things that come to mind that we need to change. i mean, obviously we had some situation of violating current rules, no sterile cockpit in this particular crash that the pilots themselves violated rules. we need to make sure that that doesn't happen again. but what do we need to do? what do the carriers need to do? what do we need to do from a regulatory perspective, and do we need legislation that the regulators can carry out?

what we are looking for here is what we can do, and so i would just like mr. may, starting with you because you mentioned training. but what we need are specifics here of things that can be done to improve safety, perhaps that is crash brings to light that we are probably not doing or not requiring or not auditing. we have so far gotten a lot of assurances that safety is our main concern, but the reason we are here is that broke down. so i'm just looking for some ideas. we need to know if we need to push the regulators to do something different. we need to pass legislation, or do we need to insist on the carriers to do something they are not doing. mr. may, i will go with you. >> senator demint, i think i made seven very specific recommendations. i will recap them for you today. i think there needs to be a

requirement that regional carriers implement foqa programs and asap programs, both of which captain prater i think would agree are all fully in use at mainline levels, and would make a market difference if required at the regional levels. i think number three, we need to put in a new training standard, if you will. there's along open npr and on training at the faa. i think probably it would be wise for the faa to implement a rulemaking committee and take a hard look at aqp programs, advanced qualification programs, if you will, that have been developed by mainline carriers. could be mentors and transported to regional carriers to improve safety in terms of training. number four, i think you need to take or have the direct the faa to take a hard look at how they

better enforce a sterile cockpit rule. we recognize that there are privacy issues involved here, but i think there needs to be some kind of monitoring of cockpit tapes on a frequent basis. >> just random auditing? >> .com at some point. and i suspect, captain printer would acknowledge that as long as we protect the privacy of the pilots, there's a way that can be done. next, i think you need to have a very specific program promulgated by the faa on records so that when a carrier goes out to higher an individual pilot, they have access to all of that pilot records in the same place and in the same format so that they can have a complete look at what has gone on there. and finally, i think you need to

make sure that we have a very close look at the whole process that is used by the faa to regulate 100 one-to-one and how many of these issues need to be incorporated in it or whether or not the standard is fine, it just needs to be an enforcement issue here so those are some very specific recommendation. >> very helpful, and i think we need to somehow get that in some joint letter that the faa to make sure that you're at least reviewing those recommendations. the other witnesses, do you agree? anything need to be added? >> we wholeheartedly support the point that mr. may pointed out. i think the industry again, one industry in concurrence on these type of issues. let me