U.S. Rep. Cravaack Introduces Bipartisan Aviation Reform Legislation

Safe Skies Act of 21012 would enhance aviation safety
Release Date: 4/17/2012 9:01:19 AM

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representatives Chip Cravaack (R-MN)
and Tim Bishop (D-NY) introduced H.R. 4350, the Safe Skies Act of
2012. Importantly, the bill would ensure that pilot rest requirements
apply to all cargo air operations.

Following the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash on February 12, 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) developed a rule to address pilot fatigue for passenger flights using extensive scientific study, hearings, and industry feedback.  The rule, which  requires eight hours of rest between shifts, was finalized on January 4th, 2012.  The rule is scheduled go into effect January 14, 2014, but exempts cargo pilots.

"As a former cargo pilot, I understand the importance of a single standard of safety for pilots who share the same airspace and runways with passenger aircraft.  I introduced the Safe Skies Act in order to apply the new, common sense standards for pilot  rest to cargo pilots as well," said Rep. Cravaack.

Specifically, the bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to apply the rule relating to flight crew member duty and rest requirements to all-cargo operations in the same manner as they apply to passenger operations.

"Congressman Cravaack has shown real leadership today by introducing legislation to ensure that the FAA’s recently enacted flight duty and rest requirements for passenger airlines equally apply to all-cargo carriers," said Independent Pilots Association President, Captain Robert Travis.  "The Cravaack-Bishop Safe Skies Act of 2012 will bring the FAA’s final rule back in line with  Congress’s original intent, one level of safety for U.S. aviation."

Representative Cravaack serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – where he is Vice Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee – the Homeland Security Committee, and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. The 8th Congressional District covers 18 counties in Northeast Minnesota.

LaHood to Ask UPS, FedEx to Follow New Pilot-Fatigue Rule

Release Date: 2012-02-29 17:27:35.500 GMT

By Alan Levin, Lisa Caruso and Natalie Doss (Bloomberg)

Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he'll meet with officials of United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. to urge the two cargo airlines to adopt pilot-fatigue rules imposed on passenger carriers.

   Following up on a promise he made in December, after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced the new work-hour restrictions wouldn't apply to cargo carriers, LaHood said today he'll try to use the power of persuasion. The meeting will occur tomorrow, Justin Nisly, a spokesman for the department, said in an e-mail.

   "I hope they'll voluntarily adopt our guidelines," LaHood said in an interview at a conference in Washington. "We're going to have a conversation. This is a good rule and I'm going to ask them to consider it."

   The FAA, in a reversal from what it had proposed in 2010, said Dec. 21 that it would exempt cargo airlines from pilot work rules designed to reduce fatigue.

   LaHood said at the time that he would invite chief executive officers of cargo carriers to his office to discuss the rule and its safety benefits.

   Cargo carriers were exempted in the final rule because the costs of applying the rules to them were too high compared with the estimated safety benefit of preventing crashes and deaths, LaHood said then.

   Since cargo planes don't carry passengers, there would be fewer deaths prevented than on passenger carriers and therefore less benefit under government formulas.

Fatigue Science

   Passenger-airline pilots will work fewer hours a day and get longer guaranteed rest periods under the new rule, the first revision of fatigue standards since 1985. They take effect in December 2013.

   The rule attempts to apply several decades of research into human fatigue. It will lower the number of hours pilots may work in a 24-hour period when they fly late at night, cross numerous time zones or make multiple landings and takeoffs.

   Under existing rules, which will still apply to cargo airlines, pilots may work as many as 16 hours during a 24-hour period regardless of when their shifts begin.

   The rest period for cargo pilots will still be as few as eight hours. Passenger pilots will get at least 10 hours off between shifts under the new rules.

'Most Wanted' Enhancements

   The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates airline and other transportation accidents, lists fatigue as one of its "Most Wanted" safety enhancements.

   The UPS position is that the rule shouldn't be applied to cargo flights because the company operates so differently from passenger carriers, Mike Mangeot, a company spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement today.

   While UPS has more overnight routes than passenger carriers, its pilots fly fewer hours per month and it has built rest facilities at some hubs in which pilots can nap between flights, he said.

   "We do plan to sit down with Secretary LaHood and see what he has to say," Mangeot said. "We are certainly open to options that will improve aviation safety and we're certainly open to working with the FAA to enhance best practices in crew rest."

   The Independent Pilots Association, which represents UPS's 2,600 pilots, filed suit Dec. 22 in an attempt to overturn the cargo exemption.

Request Rejected

   The union, in a Jan. 19 letter it released by e-mail today, asked the Atlanta-based company to agree to operate under the new rules. The company turned down the request, union President Robert Travis said in a letter to LaHood today.

   "I applaud your initiative in seeking voluntary compliance from the all-cargo industry," Travis said. "We agree that legitimate reasons do not exist for these carriers to operate outside of the new science-based pilot duty and rest rules."

   Maury Donahue, a FedEx spokeswoman, didn't have an immediate comment.

UPS Pilots File Statement of Issues in IPA v. FAA

Release Date: 1/23/2012 11:00 AM

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2012 – Today the Independent Pilots Association (UPS pilots) filed its preliminary statement of issues as ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in its challenge to the FAA's exclusion of cargo operations from its final rule on pilot flight and duty time.

"Our preliminary statement of issues outlines the basic arguments we will raise to advance our case," said IPA General Counsel William Trent; "it is the basis of our challenge to the FAA's exclusion of cargo airlines from the final rule." He added that IPA does not seek to vacate or delay the rule itself.

The Association is challenging the exclusion of cargo operators on the following grounds:

• The FAA's capricious decision to discard its August 2010 proposal that uniformly applied science-based flight and duty time rules to both passenger and cargo carriers is based on a cursory assertion that compliance costs for cargo operations significantly exceed the related societal benefits;
• The FAA's arbitrary assumptions and estimates in its cost-benefit analysis lack substantial evidence;
• The FAA failed to act in accordance with law by not providing interested parties an opportunity to review and comment on its cost-benefit calculations, the FAA's sole basis for its determination to exclude cargo operations from the final rule; and
• The FAA failed to act in accordance with law by ignoring the fatigue facts and factors that are more prevalent in cargo operations, specifically night-time operations and flying across multiple time zones.

"The Court has ordered the FAA to file the certified index of the record, essentially a catalog of the regulatory docket, by February 6," said Trent; "this will be the first chance we have to review the entire record relied upon by the FAA in reaching its decision on the final rule."

To see the entire Potential Issues for IPA Preliminary, Non-Binding Statement of Issues and other materials related to IPA v. FAA/ USCA Case #11-1483 please go to: http://www.ipapilot.org/IPAvFAA.asp

Contact: Brian Gaudet
(301) 957-4323

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IPA Petition for Review Information

Release Date: 12/22/2011

Today the Independent Pilots Association (UPS pilots) filed a Petition for Review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in order to challenge FAA's exclusion of cargo operations from the final flight and duty time rule issued yesterday.

“The IPA seeks to have cargo operations included within the scope of the rule because of the safety benefits provided by the rule.  IPA does not seek to delay implementation of these important safety benefits to passenger operations,” said IPA General Counsel William Trent.  He stated that the Association, representing the 2,700 pilots flying for UPS, would challenge the rule on multiple substantive and procedural grounds.

 “The internal inconsistency of the final rule is remarkable.  For example, the FAA states that current regulations do not adequately address the risk of fatigue (Rule p.19,) and that the maintenance of the status quo presents an ‘unacceptably high aviation accident risk” (Rule p. 259.)  Yet two of the very factors that the FAA cites as exacerbating the risk of pilot fatigue—operating at night and crossing multiple time zones (Rule p.5) are more present in cargo operations than in passenger operations,” said Trent. 

“The FAA’s only basis for excluding cargo rests on a cost benefit analysis,” said Trent.  “Yet, the Agency does not articulate how it arrived at either the projected costs or benefits of applying the final rule to cargo operators.  The rule is wholly and utterly opaque when it comes to providing any factual support for the cost benefit conclusions reached,” he added. 

“Procedural irregularities are present as well,” said Trent.  “Cargo operators were allowed to supplement the record after the public NPRM comment period was officially closed.  Accepted into the closed record was unsupported costing data provided by carriers.  This data has not been subject to public scrutiny or review,” Trent added.

In January, IPA will file additional court papers including a preliminary statement of issues it expects to raise in the case.

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UPS pilots reaction to new FAA flight & duty time rules

Release Date: 12/21/2011 10:19:51 AM

LOUISVILLE, December 21, 2011 – The following statement is from Captain Robert Travis, President of the Independent Pilots Association (UPS pilots):

"Giving air cargo carriers the choice to opt-in to new pilot rest rules makes as much sense as allowing truckers to 'opt-out' of drunk driving laws.

To potentially allow fatigued cargo pilots to share the same skies with properly rested passenger pilots creates an unnecessary threat to public safety. We can do better.

Congress directed the FAA to create new science-based flight and duty rules to establish one level of aviation safety to protect the public. Today, under intense pressure from the cargo industry lobby, the FAA has failed to carry out this basic congressional mandate.

At the same time we work to reverse the 'opt-in' provision, we will ask UPS to voluntarily operate under these new science-based safety rules. UPS is a premier company and our expectation is that UPS will honor their longstanding pledge to operate the world's safest airline."

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