Metro Jacksonville

Yup, as John Mica says........government regulations are useless! ::)  Just more "red tape," as he fondly calls government regulations. Why the heck should we even try to protect the lives of air travelers anyway?!?!?

Maybe John Mica himself needs more sleep for the safety of his Florida constituents.


Rep. Mica on FAA's new pilot fatigue rules: Government can't 'tuck them in'

By Keith Laing - 12/21/11 02:18 PM ET


House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration's new rules for pilot fatigue were an improvement, but he cautioned that the government could not force pilots to sleep before flying.

The FAA unveiled new rules Wednesday that would require pilots be given at least 10 hours of off-duty time between flight schedules, which transportation officials said would give them at least the opportunity to get eight hours of sleep before they get to the cockpit.


But Mica said Wednesday there was no guarantee the pilots would use the extra time to actually get adequate sleep.

“While the final rule provides improvement for aviation safety, pilots must take personal responsibility for coming to work rested and fit for duty," he said. "The government cannot put a chocolate on every one of their pillows and tuck them in."

Under the new rules announced Wednesday by the FAA, pilots would be limited to no more than nine hours of "flight time," which the FAA considers to be any time an airplane is moving on its own power, even if it is not in the air. Pilots would also be limited to 28 working days in a month.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood hailed the new requirements, which were created in response to the crash of Continental Airlines Flight 3407 in 2009, as a "big deal" Wednesday.



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"This is as far as our government have ever gone to send a message to the flying public that we're serious about safety," LaHood said. "We have more work to do, but we've done a lot with this rule."

Families of the victims of Continental Airlines Flight 3407 have been pushing for changes to pilot scheduling since accident inspectors ruled that fatigue had been a factor in the crash, when a regional jet flying from Newark, N.J., crashed as it approached Buffalo, N.Y.

The airplane’s co-pilot was reported at the time of the accident to have been operating on little sleep after flying across country from Seattle to Newark to start working. Fifty people were killed in the crash.

Even as transportation officials in the Obama administration were praising the new rules announced Wednesday, acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta ceded Mica's point that pilots had a responsibility for safety too.

"People need to act responsibility during their time off to make sure they show up for work fit for duty," Huerta said.

"And if they're fatigued, they need to let someone know," he added.

Airlines will be given two years to comply with the new scheduling rules. The guidelines will apply, at least initially, only to commercial airline pilots.

LaHood said Wednesday he would continue to push to have them adopted for cargo pilots as well.

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/aviation/200817-rep-mica-on-pilot-fatigue-rules-government-cant-qtuck-them-inq-

John Mica's insensitivity to traveler safety is baffling!

Critics: New Pilot Fatigue Rules Not Enough
By admin. Filed in Buffalo, New York  |   
 

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Nearly three years after 50 people perished in an airplane crash in Buffalo, New York, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a new rule today to combat pilot fatigue, but placed the final responsibility with the pilots to say when they’re too tired to fly, and did not address the issue of so-called “commuting” pilots, who fly long distances to get to work before they even enter the cockpit.

Critics, including the federal agency responsible for traveler safety, said the revamped rules don’t do enough to ensure passenger safety from errors made by tired pilots.

A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the Buffalo crash and found that commuting pilot fatigue was likely a factor in the deadly incident, told ABC News although the new limits on pilot flight and duty time were a “huge improvement,” the board was “disappointed” in how the FAA had “treated the issue of commuting pilots.”

“The FAA and industry need to take steps that go beyond providing training, education and guidance on the matter,” the spokesperson said. “We wanted to see additional focus on the companies’ responsibilities to help manage fatigue risks resulting from commuting pilots.”

ABC News consultant John Nance, a former Air Force and airline pilot, said he was “angry” about the new rules and called them “abysmal.”

“I’m very distressed over these rules,” said Nance, “because they don’t go anywhere near far enough and they bear the earmarks of having listened to the whining of the airline industry. We have needed comprehensive change in our duty time controls for fatigue for long time and this just ignores about 25 years of research.”

The chairman of the House Transportation Committee, however, emphasized that the burden was on pilots to decide when they were too tired to work.

“While the final rule provides improvement for aviation safety, pilots must take personal responsibility for coming to work rested and fit for duty,” Rep. John Mica, R.-Florida, said after the FAA’s announcement. “The government cannot put a chocolate on every one of their pillows and tuck them in at night.”

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Nance said Rep. Mica’s comment showed that the congressman did not understand the issue. “Excuse me?” snapped Nance. “This is serious business, Rep Mica. It’s not a matter of molly coddling. It’s a matter of dealing with the certainty that people who cannot afford to have a hotel room are not going to be able to get rested.”

Under what the FAA said was a “sweeping final rule,” pilots will be subject to new flight time limits and a mandatory ten-hour rest period between duty time, but the rule did not directly address the problem uncovered in an ABC News investigation of commuting pilots who have to travel from their home bases to duty elsewhere, often getting little sleep in difficult conditions before takeoff.

ABC News Full Coverage: Tired Skies

Rather, the new rules simply say pilots must report themselves unfit for duty to the airlines if they’re too exhausted, something aviators told ABC News previously they’re wary of doing for fear of reprisals.

“Often times there’s a response from the chief pilot, [saying] ‘Are you sure?’ or ‘We’re counting on you’ and ‘You know this flight is set to depart in an hour and half or so, why don’t you do that self assessment again, make sure you really are too fatigued?’” Josh Verde, a former Express Jet pilot, said today. “I think a pilot who consistently calls in fatigued could be faced with disciplinary action later on. Without actual protection by FAA in the rules for pilots who call in fatigued, you’re going to see that at airlines across the country.”

An ABC News investigation in February revealed commuting pilots across the country pilots were struggling just to get sleep in crew lounges and so-called “crash pads” before taking commercial aircraft into the skies, sometimes with hundreds of passengers aboard. Undercover video of crew lounges taken by pilots and provided to ABC News during the investigation showed pilots asleep overnight in chairs and on sofas. Current and former pilots described missing radio calls, entering incorrect readings in instruments and even falling asleep mid-flight.

PHOTOS: Inside the Secret World of Tired Pilots

Faye, as one who has worked in EVERY type of transportation, Truck, Bus, Railroad, Marine and Airline, John is right.

Highway carriers are generally (there are certain exceptions to all of these, such as Oil Field trucking, railroad hostler and other special cases) now under a 10 hour work day with 12 consecutive hours of 'rest'. The biggest trouble with highway hours-of-service-laws is you MUST rely on thousands of lone drivers and their logs. Most drivers know this can be faked, fudged and otherwise made into a lie.

Railroads have long had a 12 hour, 'hours of service law,' and it is strictly monitored by the carriers and FRA 'snoops.' I have actually seen freight trains sitting in the area of Kent Campus in what is called 'DEAD ON THE LAW'. CSX had to send out a van with a new crew just to get it into Moncrief Yard.  Calling in a new '8 hours of pay' crew just to move the train 20 minutes on into Jacksonville would seem like something they might let slide, but they don't. In these cases the carrier bites the bullet and stops the train.

Bus and Trucking are harder to regulate then rail or air carriers by their independent driver nature. Railroads often share terminals, for example the Florida East Coast run through trains to Macon and Savannah, but their track never goes north of Beaver Street in Jacksonville. Because of this a violation of hours of service is a career killer.

QuoteJohn Mica (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration's new rules for pilot fatigue were an improvement, but he cautioned that the government could not force pilots to sleep before flying.

The catch here is exactly what Mica said, HOW DO YOU KNOW that the airline crew 'rested' during those rest periods? The same will apply for the surface transportation careers. Until someone invents a sleep monitor device that can be checked daily, we'll really never know if a pilot spent his off hours in bed sleeping, or if he/she was in bed entertaining a flight attendant.

I don't agree that the rules are useless, but when you learn that the air crew was tired AFTER they splatter their plane and its passengers into the side of a mountain, it might seem that way. These laws are good, we need them and we need to hold the various carriers feet in the fire, but a lot of what goes on will depend on trust, faith and nothing more. All of these industries need constant and severe monitoring for the publics safety, and thankfully most of them do make a real effort to meet the standards.

OCKLAWAHA

Ock, before the rule change..........which still won't go into effect until 2 years from now........pilots had less than 10 hours off-duty time between schedules.

If the off-duty time is just 8 hours, how can you expect them to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep for safe piloting, since they would still need to get home or to a hotel, take a shower and eat during those 8 hours?

What Mica says is the perpetual "government regulations are bad" refrain, which is getting pretty pathetic.

The 8 hours rest thing has been pretty much across the entire transportation spectrum for decades. I agree that it needs/needed to change as it tended to waste 2 or more hours for meals and commuting, the 6 remaining hours are hardly enough rest time.

The 'useless' aspect of these laws is the expectation that every, driver, pilot, conductor and their crews will adhere to it. My guess would be that is where the comment originated. Perhaps Mica feels these rules are like the federal marijuana laws, every state and municipality has them but few adhere to them. I don't agree with Mica that they are completely useless,  like our downtown river walks and Hemming Plaza... Just how much of the furniture do you remove before the homeless leave town? I think the correct answer is that you don't remove ANYTHING and do your best to police the situation.

OCKLAWAHA

Well Ock, laws are for poeple's protection whether people adhere to them or not............ in that vein, Mica might say "we don't need speeding limits" because we can't force people to adhere to the speeding limits.

It's total nonsense and quite disgraceful to talk like that........... it really is just to thumb your nose at safety laws to protect the flying public.

John Mica in essence mocks the 1% and the laws that need to be in effect to protect them from exploitation and danger:
"The government cannot put a chocolate on every one of their (the pilot's) pillows and tuck them (the pilots) in."

That's just no way for a public servant to talk............of course Mica probably is a airline industry servant rather than a public servant to begin with. After all, the airline industry supplied him with more campaign donations than the public did.  ::)

Again, why do we have so-called leaders who do not believe in the Public Good?