From the Morning Memo:
The Western New York Congressional Delegation is again pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to implement a key component of safety reforms passed at the urging of family members of those who died on the Flight 3407 crash in Clarence Center.
An Electronic Pilot Training Database was supposed to be in effect no later than April 2017. However, has been stalled in the beta testing phase for more than two years.
The database would give airlines full access to training records of commercial pilots. In February,around the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, lawmakers individually wrote letters to FAA Secretary Elaine Chao.
This week, in another effort, they sent a unified letter led by the delegation with signatures from 20 other members of Congress as well.
“The Captain of Flight 3407 was hired with only 600 hours of flight experience at his first regional airline job and had previously failed three Federal Aviation Administration check rides, only having disclosed one to the regional airline that hired him.
“This is one of several reasons the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Accident Report concluded the incident was entirely avoidable and attributable to pilot error. Based on recommendations from the NTSB, the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-216), enacted major legislative reforms including the establishment of a Pilot Records Database to prevent such a circumstance from occurring in the future,” the bipartisan letter reads.
Many of the 3407 families, again, returned to Washington this week to discuss the importance of the safety standards.