Regional Aviation News :: Regional Pilots Again Focus of Safety Concerns

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After the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) expressed concerns over regional airline pilots on several occasions last year, USA Today used the Shuttle America Delta Connection accident last year as an example of regional safety problems in a major story last week that finally picked up on industry concerns. Just as it did in the 1980s, pilot issues are expected to gain in notoriety this year as NTSB releases its reports and board members and ALPA continue publicizing their concerns.
The article, authored by USA Today Aviation Safety Reporter Alan Levin, noted that Pilot Capt. James Langford had but an hour’s sleep the night before he began his full schedule on February 18. His third flight ended with his jet skidding off a snow slicked runway in Cleveland which injured three of the 71 passengers on board as well as severely damaging the aircraft. He cited lack of sleep to NTSB investigators.
NTSB has long said fatigue is a top safety issue, noting the difference in the rules in which pilots are allowed to miss work because of fatigue, and airline policies that penalize pilots for missing work, especially in an era of acute pilot shortages. NTSB records show Capt. Langford had received a written reprimand, threatening termination, for the number of fatigue-related accidents, said Levin. “In addition to sick time, his absences included a day he missed because he had not slept well during 11 hours off duty between trips,” wrote Levin. “‘You are not fatigued,’ Langford said an airline dispatcher told him when he tried to explain the absence.”
The accident came as both the NTSB and FAA are focusing on runway safety, an issue for regional airlines, and safety officials are again questioning the safety of regional pilots. The NTSB has raised concerns and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) have already targeted regional pilot experience and training as potential safety issues, revisiting an issue that first surfaced in the 1980s. Related Story
The USA Today article cited four fatal regional airline crashes in the past five years that killed 85, comparing it to the major-carrier rate in which only one person died during the same period. He quoted NTSB Vice Chair Robert Sumwalt as saying, "This is where the accidents are occurring.” In addition, former NTSB Chair Jim Hall told Levin, "We are seeing trends now that should give us cause for concern. You see a lowering of standards, an increased accident rate, and an increase in the number of incidents."
“Regionals were slow to adopt safety programs introduced at major airlines and in recent years,” wrote Levin. “Many have lowered pilot hiring standards because turnover was so high, according to NTSB case files and private safety experts…Regional airlines with lesser-known names such as Mesa, Shuttle America and Atlantic Southeast account for nearly half of all airline flights and carry more than 20 percent of passengers.”
Levin quoted Regional Airline Association President Roger Cohen, who noted that regionals fly under the same regulations as the major carriers and the fact they have spent millions improving safety in recent years. “Officials at the regional airlines insist that they run safe operations and that the number of accidents regionals had compared with large carriers is a statistical fluke,” he wrote.
"It's safer to fly an airplane than it is to take a shower," Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein told Levin, "No fatalities last year. That speaks for itself."
Levin reviewed public records on the Shuttle America case and several other accidents and incidents in recent years and provided a dose of reality. “Despite having more fatal accidents than major airlines, the odds of dying on a regional carrier are remote,” he said. “Since 2003, there have been four fatal accidents out of more than 24 million regional airline flights. There were no fatal accidents on regionals in the five years prior to 2003.
In addition to the Shuttle America accident, Levin cited pilot fatigue as a factor in the 2004 Corporate Airlines crash at Kirksville, Mo. which killed 13, as well as the Pinnacle Airlines accident the same year which outlined “a pattern of pilot sloppiness in recent accidents that involved regional carriers. Both pilots on the Pinnacle jet died, but no passengers were aboard.”
Indeed, it was the latter accident, coupled with the Comair accident in Kentucky that prompted Sumwalt to focus on regionals in a speech before the ALPA Safety Summit last year when he said there might be a worrisome pattern that regional pilots may not be keeping their eye on the ball, and stressed the importance of adhering to standard operating procedures. He talked about FAA Line Operation Safety Audit findings, which indicated that a crew who doesn’t follow standard operating procedures is three times as likely to make mistakes. Related Story
"These are not your grandfather's or even your father's regional airlines," Cohen told Levin. “The airplanes, the people, the procedures are dramatically different than that old puddle-jumper perception." Levin noted that “all but one of the large regional carriers has in recent years adopted a program begun over a decade ago at major carriers to get pilots to report safety problems” but added “still, regional carriers generally lag major airlines in adopting sophisticated data analysis of flight risks, according to airlines and federal data.”
"They are not identifying the risks of their operation as much as other larger operations would do," says Michael Barr, who teaches aviation safety at the University of Southern California, told Levin

Regional Pilots Again Focus of Safety Concerns

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