Mr. Jim May, President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Transport Association of America

 

Mr. Roger Cohen, President, Regional Airline Association

 

Captain John Prater, President, Airline Pilots Association, International

 

Mr. Scott Maurer, Representative of the Families of Continental Flight 3407

 

 

“Airlines must make commitments to embrace the best practices across the industry if they are going to improve safety in a meaningful manner.”

“In this country, we continue to have a remarkably safe air system. But we have a responsibility to examine crashes when they occur and ensure that we do all we can to prevent further accidents.”

“No accident or incident is acceptable. We seek to learn from each event. Consequently, ATA has formed a Senior Advisory Task Force to address the matters raised during the recent NTSB hearing about the Buffalo accident. The task force is comprised of airline presidents, chief operating officers and their peers. It will ensure that our support of the FAA, airlines, unions and others is responsive, targeted and thorough.”

 

 “Federal safety statistics clearly show that flying is the safest mode of travel. A person is far more likely to have a fatal accident traveling in a car, train, or bus than traveling by air. According to the National Safety Council, the fatality rate for cars is 7,700 percent higher than for commercial aircraft and the fatality rate for trains and buses is 300 percent higher. This remarkable safety record is the result of decades of dedicated work from aviation safety professionals, both in the government and in the industry.”

“The current U.S. flight and duty time rules are a patchwork of regulations that are intended to address disparate domestic, international flag, and supplemental operations. There have been a number of attempts to revise the regulations over the past 25 years, but those attempts have met with generally abysmal results because of the contentious disagreement by the stakeholders as to which changes were appropriate or needed.”

“Voluntary safety recommendations made to cash-strapped airlines cannot protect the flying public. It is imperative that the mechanism for translating NTSB safety recommendations into mandated practice be streamlined to eliminate what is often years of delay between recognition of a safety concern and action to correct it.”

 

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