Lawmakers Examine Commercial Airline Safety

June 10, 2009— -- Lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill are scrutinizing the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of commercial airlines on the heels of several high profile plane crashes that have raised concerns about travelers' safety.

In a statement prepared for the meeting, Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, called the February plane crash in Buffalo, N.Y., and last week's Air France crash over the Atlantic Ocean "chilling, horrific reminders that there is nothing more important in aviation than the safety of all passengers."

But the Transportation Department's inspector general told lawmakers today that the FAA's system to oversee carriers needs work.

"In preparation for this hearing, we have identified serious vulnerabilities in five critical FAA programs for oversight of the aviation industry," said Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel.

Those weaknesses in the FAA's oversight of the airlines include "risk-based inspections, repair stations, aging aircraft, disclosures of safety violations made through the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and whistleblower complaints," Scovel told the aviation subcommittee of Senate Commerce panel.

Scovel plans to release a report on those issues later this year.

Scovel also said the FAA's plan for regional air carrier oversight, by including it in its Air Transportation Oversight System known as ATOS, might not work.

"This is a completely new way of conducting oversight, and inspectors we interviewed stated that ATOS applies more to large carrier operations and needs to revised to fit the operations unique to smaller air carriers," Scovel said.

Buffalo Crash Draws Attention to Regional Airline Safety

A total of 50 people died when Colgan Air flight 3407 went down in a regional jet just short of the Buffalo airport in February.

At its recent National Transportation Safety Board hearing on the accident, investigators honed in on the pilot and crew's training as well as issues of fatigue and possible cockpit errors.

Many pilots in turn said they'd seen it all before.

Just yesterday, Babbit and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that starting immediately pilot training at regional airlines will be scrutinized by FAA inspectors.

"I have no greater obligation than to ensure the safety of airline travelers in this country," LaHood said in a Tuesday statement.

The regional airlines voiced support Tuesday for the new emphasis on federal oversight of pilot training.

"Safety always has been and always will be our No. 1 priority," said Regional Airline Association President Roger Cohen. "We support all steps DOT Secretary LaHood and FAA administrator Babbitt call for to make this happen."

"I would like to note that these issues are not relevant to regional airlines alone," NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker testified today. "They are pertinent to every airline operation, major air carriers as well as regional air carriers."

"We are a safe aviation country, but we should be now saying, 'Let's take another look, let's see where we need to be more stringent and have more oversight just to assure we are doing everything possible,'" Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said today.

Air Travel: One Level of Safety

After several commuter plane crashes in the early 1990s, rules took effect in 1997 that created more stringent requirements for commuter planes. They now have to follow the same rules as the major carriers.

"At that time a commitment was made to all air travelers, whether they were boarding an air carrier at the largest airport in New York, or the smallest in my home state of West Virginia, that safety would be consistent throughout the aviation system," Rockefeller said in a Wednesday statement.

But subcommittee chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. asked, "Does it exist today? Because a lot of evidence suggests that, at least in the most recent crash, that was not the case."

Pilots can be on duty 16 hours per day, which includes time not spent flying, such as preparing the plane and monitoring weather reports. They can fly only eight hours in a 24-hour period.

The FAA also requires 250 hours of flying time for pilot hires, though it says industry practice is usually higher, with many logging at least 500 hours.

But the law does not require airlines to obtain records of failed flight checks that happened before they became a commercial pilot. The pilot of the Buffalo flight, Capt. Marvin Renslow, had failed several flight checks when getting his pilot's license, but failed to disclose them all to Colgan Air on his application.

Today, FAA administrator Randy Babbit, who previously worked on the "one level of safety" changes while president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said the FAA offers several types of pilot certification, including private, commercial and airline transport pilot certification, which is needed to fly as a captain for an airline.

"In addition to these FAA certifications, airline pilots receive initial and additional recurrent training through the air carriers for whom they work," Babbit said. "These training programs are evaluated and approved by the FAA."

"While we are in an extremely safe period in aviation history, the Colgan Air accident and the loss of Air France 447 remind us that we cannot rest on our laurels, that we must remain alert and aware of the challenges in our aviation system. We've got to continue to work to enhance the safety of the system," Babbit said.

Still, some say the FAA is not doing enough.

In mid-May as NTSB investigators examined what went wrong in Buffalo, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately rethink what is required of new pilots before they take to the skies.

"I believe that FAA must start by reevaluating what it requires of airline training curricula," Schumer wrote. "NTSB's hearings have indicated that lack of hands-on training of a stick-pusher may have played a role in the crash of Flight 3407, and I wonder what other important training exercises may be left of out of curricula."

"In the interest of cost cutting, the commuter airlines seem to be overworking and underpaying their pilots," Schumer later told ABC News. "The training doesn't seem to be full and adequate."

Airline Safety: What Sully Did Right

Today is also the second day of an NTSB hearing on January's "Miracle on the Hudson."

On Tuesday Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger told members of the safety board that experience mattered as he gracefully landed a U.S. Airways flight on the river after hitting birds.

"I think that [experience] allowed me to focus clearly on the highest priorities at every stage of the flight without having to constantly refer to written guidance," Sullenberger said.

"No matter how much technology is available, an airplane is still just ultimately an airplane," he later added. "The physics are the same and basic skills may ultimately be required when either the automation fails or it's no longer appropriate to use it."

"We're all so thankful," Billy Campbell, a passenger on Sullenberger's flight said Tuesday. "The most difficult thing, and I would assume many of us share this, is seeing the other flights that don't end this way. You know, I came home and about three weeks after this and saw on the news the Buffalo flight, and then obviously, we're all terribly saddened by what's happened with Air France."

Next Monday, representatives of the major airlines and their regional partners, along with industry groups and others invested in the airline business, will meet with LaHood and Babbit to discuss how to make flying safer.

ABC News' Tom Shine contributed to this report.