mr. maurer. that we would like to be able to make a promise when we finished with these hearings, mr. chairman, that we will have done whatever we can to make this excellent safety record that exists for the american aviation even better. and we look at interest at our witnesses. >> senator johanns? >> mr. chairman, thank you. my comments will be very, very brief. but let me tell you what i'm thinking about and hoping to accomplish through this process. i think the burden is on the airlines to prove to the american people that when we get on for the price of our ticket, whatever that is, that we're going to have a well-experienced crew who will treat us politely and decently. an airplane that is safe as can possibly be and i think really the burden is there. when i think about this flight and i feel so badly for these families but this hearing is bigger than that one flight. i think about questions about, is the plane safe? what's the inspection background of this airplane? what would the service

mr. maurer. our condolences to you and all the families. very tragic incident, and i applaud you for committing yourself to making sure this does not happen to any other families. thank you for your efforts and for the courageous work you are doing. coming from a state like mine, we have a heavy reliance on regional airlines. they play an important role transporting some passengers that otherwise would not have air service. no one is arguing which not take the overall aviation safety record for granted, but we also need improvement. we want to make sure the airlines and and they are doing everything they can to improve the overall safety record when it comes to all airlines. i particularly want to hone in on something we spoke about last week which is the need to incorporate more information regarding the background of pilots. i think it makes sense that we work to ensure the faa inc. in more accurate picture of eight prospective pilots' flight history when it -- i think it is important at the faa incorporates a more accurate picture of per

mr. maurer to comment to the suggestions? >> i guess i would just like to remind everybody, when you are sitting in the passenger section of the plane again if you are aware of who is up there on the other side of those stores. full disclosure, is it too much of a thing to ask when your life is at hand? and other comment -- chairman doriden had that chart up there. my commute to work is 7 miles. members of the senate, i know you come from a pretty far away, but you have to a residence here. you have some place here. perhaps in the airline industry needs to consider providing for that kind of thing. if we are going to allow pilots to commit these great distances, i happen to travel probably every other week and is not uncommon for me to be sitting side by side with pilots who are commuting to their base location. they are tired in. i get in conversations with all the time, they are tired, those hours don't count for the critical restriction. i mean, these are things we've got to take into account. we learned in our accidents o

mr. maurer, thank you very much for your testimony. i have experienced tragedy in my family in a plane crash with my father, but even to more extreme that the plane was never recovered. it took a tragedy back then to change the rules of requiring locator beacons in planes because of that incident. it was the largest air recovery attempt in this country's history. it seems always when we deal with air traffic safety, it is always a tragedy that moves us to the next page. i appreciate you being here. i am very, very sympathetic for personal reasons, but as i was listening to the testimony, mr. cohen, i feel like you are on the hot seat, and i appreciate you being here. as i was listening, i asked my staff, because all associations of conferences and meetings and so forth, so while you were testifying, i said go and get me a copy of your last conference which was held in mid-may. it was a five day conference. this is now two or three months after the significant incidents in the regional airline's history. but yet when i look through the

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 wi

mr. maurer, we are indebted to you and the families who decided to in the name of those you love to finday to make a difference and make certain that others did not experience the same fate so we appreciate all four of you being here. this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] some of the debate on the bill included comments from senators barbara boxer and john mccain. this is about 10 minutes. >> a message to the people of pakistan and that the united states has made a long-term commitment to stand by their side in the region and at home as they battle domestic insurgency and extremists. however, the conference report also contains millions of dollars in unrequested spending that is largely unjustified and certainly non-emergency. president obama's message to congress was two keep funding focus on the news of our troops and not to use the supplemental to pursue unnecessary spending and to keep earmarks another extraneous spending out of the legislation. despite the president's insistence not to inclu

mr. maurer. i have some discomfort about a good many things here, reading the transcript of the cockpit recording demonstrated to me a number of errors, a number of deficiencies occurred in the management of that fight. i also said the young co-pilot and co-pilot perished in that accident as well and they are not here to speak for themselves. they have families who miss them terribly. i am discomfited by that, and yet we have no choice but to proceed aggressively to find out, what are the standards here? are these accidents, was there an accident that could have been prevented? how do we prevent future accidentss and circumstances like this? let me ask a few questions. my understanding to mr. mayer and mr. kogan, we are hiring pilots to put in a pocket of commercial airlineairlines, 30, passengers, for $10 an hour. >> the average pay is $72,000 a year. the average pay of a first officer is thirty-two thousand dollars a year. that is very comparable to other professions that have lives at stake, m

mr. maurer. >> i guess what i would comment on it is we learned in the ntsb hearings that there is a software available to take inexperienced pilots and put them with experienced pilots so a mentoring program of some sort where you got an experienced pilot who has flown in ice, who has seen it and understands it, knows what to do. put an inexperienced pilot with that and perhaps we might have a better outcome. i mean, that is a hands-on way of learning about these things. there is always so much that can be done in a simulator, let's face it. >> i would think i sing it would be harder condition to simulate. maybe i am not even about that but it would be. >> along that line i want to make one other comment. the regional airlines typically are flying less than to our type flights etc.. you mentioned it, more takeoffs and landings. as i have interviewed and talk to pilots this is a critical time of flight taking off and landing. where then should we have the best skill? and i am not try to take anything away from the majors, but should we not have the best pilots, the most skilled pilots flying

mr. maurer can we start with you? >> i assume you're talking about flight duty time? >> gayes. >> i think they are appropriate. we made a commitment at the faa's call to action on monday to enter into a science -based study to determine whether or not they are currently appropriate or not. there has been a recent proceeding on alto line flying that the faa has done. it was science -based. plenty of skilled people available to do that. i think we probably ought to incorporate, the chairman has raised this issue of commuting. i think we ought to incorporate that into the process. and so we would strongly endorse a process being established by faa to look at flight duty time, current standard. how they might differ for regionals, for example, with lots of takeoffs and landings versus long haul. all that needs to be put on the table to my time is definitely up so you can be very quick on that response. >> i totally agree. and we believe there's been enough study, we are ready to move forward with a. we do believe there's enough science on the record. we're going to make o