Even though most fliers look for cheap traveloptions, such as cheapairplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages whenplanning a trip, they will fly safer with the significantly tougher trainingrequirements for pilots the government instituted on November 5th.
Among the more important changes is that airlines will berequired to provide better training on how to prevent and recover from anaerodynamic stall which occurs when a plane slows to the point that it loseslift. That was what occurred toContinental Express Flight 3407, which crashed on approach to Buffalo NiagaraInternational Airport in western New York in February of 2009, killing all 49people on the plane and one man on the ground.
Crash victims families campaigned vigorously for almostfive years for changes in federal regulations to fix safety issued identifiedby the accident, including better pilot training. In 2010 the families persuaded Congress topass a sweeping aviation safety law.
The new requirements, which are regarded as the mostsubstantial in the past twenty years, call for the airlines to provide flightsimulator training for pilots on how to deal with a stall.
The crash was caused in part because the captain and firstofficer of Flight 3407 failed to notice that the speed of the twin engineturboprop had dropped dangerously low. Instead of pushing forward on the yoke to lower the nose of the plane inorder to pick up speed, while increasing engine power, the captain pulled backhard on the yoke, sending the plane into a stall.
The captain had never received any hands on training on howto recover from a stall in the plane he was flying, only classroom lessons. The accident was his first time heexperienced a stall.
Before the crash the emphasis in the airline industry hadbeen on training pilots how to avoid getting into a situation where a planemight stall, with little instruction on how to recover from one.
The new rule will result in pilots receiving the mostadvanced training available regarding how to handle emergencies that they mayencounter, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The new requirements are focused onpreventing events that are admittedly rare, though catastrophic when they occur.
Other changes required by the new rule include:
-
Pilotsperformance will be tracked and airlines must provide remedial training forpilots who repeatedly demonstrate deficiencies in skills tests.
-
Additionaltraining for pilots when sitting in the second cockpit seat regarding how theyshould monitor the performance of the other pilot who is flying the plane.
-
Expandedtraining on how to handle crosswinds and wind gusts.
Airlines have expressed concerned that the new trainingrequirements will increase their costs. The FAA estimates those additional costs to be between $274 million and$354 million. Airlines are being givenfive years before they have to implement the new requirements.
www.cheapfares.com