Turn of an Overplayed Card
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, Illinois) somewhat hyperbolically warned lawmakers supportive of a proposal by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (Independent, Arizona) and John Thune (Republican, South Dakota) that they stood to have blood on their hands.
Duckworth, who serves as chair of the subcommittee on aviation safety, is a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot. In 2004, a Black Hawk helicopter being flown by Duckworth was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents. Duckworth lost both legs and some mobility in her right arm—thereby becoming the war’s first female double amputee. She was awarded a medical waiver and served in the Illinois Army National Guard for ten additional years, retiring from the service as a lieutenant colonel in 2014.
Speaking out during a 15 June Senate floor speech, Duckworth impugned an amendment added to the iteration of an FAA reauthorization bill passed the day prior, contending she "is only alive because of the swift actions of an experienced flight crew.”
Duckworth argued: "There has never been a worse time to consider weakening pilot certification requirements to produce less experienced pilots; 2023 has already been a chilling year for our civil aviation system. We've witnessed a disturbing rise of near-deadly close calls that led the FAA to convene an unprecedented safety summit where the acting administrator warned that the entire aviation industry need to not grow complacent because complacency kills."
Duckworth continued: "The last thing we should be doing is weakening part 121 certification standards. We have had seven close calls most recently and the answer is not, 'Let's reduce pilot training. It's the pilot who prevented those close calls from becoming accidents in the first place. As a pilot, I learned the value of real-world experience. Trust me, hours in that cockpit in the sky matter. Simulators are a valuable training tool. I applaud them and make use of them, but they are no substitute for the real thing. Life-saving instincts are earned through hours of dedication through the craft of piloting a real aircraft with real stakes."
The Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA), the labor union representing upwards of 74,000 pilots at 42 U.S. and Canadian airlines, set forth in a June 2023 statement that the so-called Enhanced Qualification Program supported by Thune and Sinema would weaken pilot training and qualification requirements by dint of which the number of airline passenger fatalities has—since subject requirements’ codification—been reduced by 99.8-percent. The union asserted the amendment would change the manner in which flight-hours are counted, permitting some pilots to fly with as few as five-hundred hours of training—thereby effectively reverting to the rules in place prior to Congress’s 2010 overhaul of FAA regulatory conventions.
"At this point I question whether the special interests pushing to weaken the 1,500-hour rule even have a methodology or model to measure the relationship between certain certification standards and the availability of pilots," Duckworth carried tirelessly and pedantically on.
"Now is not the time to go backward on our post-COVID safety system and there has not been a single aviation fatality due to pilot error since the 1,500-hour rule was put into effect. Now is not the time to put corporate profits ahead of the lives of our constituents who may want to board a commercial flight in the future. A vote to reduce a 1,500-hour rule for pilot training will mean blood on your hands when the inevitable accident occurs as the result of an improperly trained crew," Duckworth declared.
Duckworth made no mention of the fact that U.S. Army helicopter pilot training comprises a total of 179-hours of flight time and thirty-hours of simulator time—after which pilots are initially deemed qualified.
In a statement to the press refuting Duckworth, Sinema office spokesperson Hannah Hurley defended the amendment, stating: "This broadly supported bipartisan amendment empowers the FAA to determine the safest way to train pilots and continues Kyrsten’s laser focus on increasing aviation safety."
Sinema's office argued the amendment doesn’t erode the overall hours, experience, or training required under current regulations insomuch as it explicitly states the FAA must prove any changes to flight-training curricula enhance safety.
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