Watchdog: Many co-pilots don't meet training standards

— -- Three-quarters of the co-pilots at two regional carriers visited recently by federal inspectors didn't have enough hours to meet new training standards the Federal Aviation Administration proposes for them, a Senate subcommittee was told Tuesday.

Calvin Scovel III, the Transportation Department's inspector general, told the Senate transportation subcommittee on aviation that the co-pilots fell short of the 1,500 hours of flight training that the FAA says they should have starting in August 2013.

And, he said, neither of the airlines had plans for meeting the new requirement that the FAA proposed last month in response to orders from Congress following the crash of a Colgan Air plane near Buffalo in February 2009 that killed 50 people.

"Neither carrier had developed a plan to ensure these pilots would be able to meet the enhanced requirements by the deadline," he said. Scovel didn't identify the two airlines his inspectors visited.

The FAA proposed that co-pilots have the same 1,500 hours in the air as captains to become certified for an airline. At present, the requirement is 250 hours. The new standard stems from investigation of the Colgan crash, in which the training, experience and pay of regional airline pilots were questioned. About a quarter of all passengers on domestic flights each day fly on regional airlines.

The airlines told the subcommittee they were concerned the new requirements focused more on hours than the quality of training.

Thomas Hendricks, senior vice president for safety at the airlines trade group Airlines for America, said learning how to recover from a stall or how to fly in bad weather was more important than racking up hundreds of hours. He also warned that the standards could hurt recruitment of pilots at regional airlines.

The FAA made exceptions to the required hours for co-pilots who earned a bachelor's degree in aviation or who flew for the military. Restricted certificates could be issued to co-pilots with college degrees and 1,000 hours of flying or to military pilots with 750 hours.

Capt. Carl Kuwitsky, president of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations said all airline pilots should have 1,500 hours of experience in the cockpit rather than in a classroom. The coalition represents 28,000 pilots at American, US Airways, Southwest and other airlines.

"The only place you can get experience is in the cockpit of an airplane experiencing all that goes on," Kuwitsky said. "Now you can get 3,000 or 4,000 hours of experience in a crop-duster — that has no translation to our operation."