House Engrossed

State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-third Legislature Second Regular Session 2018

HOUSE CONCURRENT MEMORIAL 2005

 

A Concurrent memorial

 

urging the united states congress to allow the united states department of transportation to provide waivers for certain flight-hour training requirements.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

To the Congress of the United States:

Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, the City of Prescott is an Essential Air Service ("EAS") community; and

Whereas, the United States Congress instituted a requirement following the February 2009 airline accident involving Colgan Air Flight 3407; and

Whereas, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the cause of the crash was pilot error and inability to properly handle the aircraft; and

Whereas, following the crash, Congress implemented a requirement that all second-in-command commercial pilots obtain roughly 1,500 hours of flight time; and

Whereas, the first pilot in command of Colgan Air Flight 3407 had logged 3,379 total hours of flight time and the second pilot in command had logged 2,244 hours of flight time; and

Whereas, the pilots involved in the Flight 3407 crash met all the requirements under the new rule but were unfamiliar with the aircraft that crashed; and

Whereas, the current flight-hour requirement is the same regardless of the aircraft in use; and

Whereas, the current flight-hour requirement emphasizes quantity of flight hours over quality of flight hours; and

Whereas, EAS communities are often small or rural in nature and rely on smaller regional airlines using smaller aircraft, including smaller turboprop or jets, to support their communities; and

Whereas, without these smaller airlines and the pilots to fly the aircraft, rural communities would lose their connectivity to the rest of the nation; and

Whereas, many pilots cannot justify the high cost of education with several years of low salaries and unpredictable schedules to obtain the required 1,500 hours of flight time before being able to advance to a regional or major airline; and

Whereas, the 1,500 flight-hour rule incentivizes many pilots, on achieving the minimum requirement, to work for large commercial airlines in an effort to pay off their student loan expenses instead of remaining in EAS communities; and

Whereas, before the rule's implementation, second-in-command commercial pilots needed only approximately 250 hours of flight time; and

Whereas, the current 1,500 flight-hour rule has reduced the number of pilots working in EAS communities.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1.  That the United States Congress act expeditiously to allow the United States Department of Transportation to provide additional EAS‑specific waivers for the 1,500 flight-hour training requirement to airlines to allow second-in-command commercial airline pilots the flexibility to serve EAS communities.

2.  That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.