New training requirements are set to better-equip airline pilots and crewmembers to prevent fatal errors from occurring in emergency cases.
The FAA has revised a proposal to enhance air carrier training programs, replacing the original plan released in January 2009.
“The FAA is proposing the most significant changes to air carrier training in 20 years,” said Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator in a statement.
The proposal aims to improve the performance of pilots, encouraging them to practice for stall recovery.
Alison Duquette, spokeswoman for FAA said, “They are currently trained on how to recognize a stall but they are going to be getting additional simulator training on recovery from a stall.”
“Most of our training or the airline training is focused on not getting into a stall in the first place but if for some reason you do, Congress mandated that we offer additional training for how to actually get out of it,” Duquette said.
In light of the Colgan Air crash in 2009, which killed 50 people, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed the pilot made a fatal decision when responding to a cockpit stall warning.
“The focus is for the pilots to use more simulator based training and most of the airlines already do this but by putting this in our regulations, [it will] make sure even the smaller airlines do this as well,” Duquette said.
Regulations for training dispatchers and flight attendants have also been rewritten. Flight attendants will be getting more frequent hands-on emergency training, which will be done every year as opposed to every two years.
Kelly Skyles, communications coordinator at the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said, “APFA supports hands-on training to enhance our qualifications and knowledge of our emergency procedures. Hands-on training enhance our safety and security skills as safety professionals.”
Further changes include remedial training for pilots with performance deficiencies who may have failed a proficiency test in the new proposal.
“We’re proposing that the airline have a program where if there was a pilot who has some kind of deficiency while they’re training, the airline would collect the data and monitor the pilot,” Duquette said, “They have to collect data on how they actually monitor their pilots as well so it’s not just them looking at each individual pilot, it’s how they as the airliner is monitoring the pilots as well.”
