By Jim Berard (202) 226-5064
Opening Statement of The Honorable James L. Oberstar
Before the House Aviation Subcommittee
On The National Transportation Safety Board’s
Most Wanted Aviation Safety Improvements
June 6, 2007
I want to thank Chairman Costello and Ranking Member Petri for calling today’s hearing on The National Transportation Safety Board’s Most Wanted Aviation Safety Improvements.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) roots stem as far back as 1926 when the Air Commerce Act vested the Department of Commerce with the authority to investigative aircraft accidents. During the 1966 consolidation of transportation agencies into the Department of Transportation (DOT), the NTSB was created as an independent agency within DOT to investigate accidents in all transportation modes.
In 1974, the NTSB continued to retain its independence when Congress re-established the NTSB as a separate entity distinct from DOT. Since that time, the NTSB has investigated almost 130,000 aviation accidents. The NTSB’s tireless efforts in investigating accidents and issuing recommendations have led to innovative safety enhancements, such as manual cutoff switches for airbags, measures to prevent runway incursions, and countermeasures against operator fatigue in all modes of transportation. The American traveling public is much safer today due to the hard work of the NTSB staff in conducting investigations and pursuing safety recommendations.
In 1990, the NTSB first issued its Most Wanted Safety Improvements. Unfortunately, human fatigue and airport runway incursions were on the list in 1990 and they are still on the list in 2007. The 2007 NTSB’s Most Wanted aviation safety improvements also includes aircraft icing, fuel tank flammability, improved audio and data recorders, and part 135 crew resource management.
The fact that six of the fourteen NTSB Most Wanted safety improvements are aviation-related is troublesome given that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts one billon passengers by 2015. The cannot afford to be anything less than vigilant with regard to the flying publics’ safety. We owe it to the families of the victims of previous accidents, many of whom are represented here today by the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation. We must learn from their loss, so that other families do not lose loved ones from similar accidents in the future.
One of the most critical issues facing all flight crew today is fatigue, especially with increased fuel costs and the air carrier’s emphasis on increasing productivity and driving down labor costs. We need to be mindful of this important issue as it pertains to all aviation professionals, from pilots to controllers, to flight attendants and mechanics. Working long hours on an irregular schedule can have a destructive effect on decision-making abilities.
Vince Lombardi was well known for his comment “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” What he meant was it weakens all of your senses, all of your reaction times, all of your ability to perform at the highest level. As I have repeatedly said: Fatigue does not show up in autopsies! Our nation’s aviation professionals must be provided adequate rest to perform their critical safety functions. Anything less is simply not acceptable!
Seventeen years ago, the NTSB called upon the Department of Transportation (DOT) – including the FAA – to review its current hours-of-service regulatory schemes to ensure that the latest scientific research on fatigue and research had been incorporated. Progress on FAA’s proposed 1995 overhaul to its flight and duty regulations for pilots has essentially stopped under the Bush Administration.
More recently, on April 10, 2007, the NTSB issued two recommendations to the FAA to work with the controllers union to revise controller work-scheduling policies to provide for adequate rest periods, and to develop fatigue awareness and countermeasures training program for controllers and controller-schedulers.
Having well-rested aviation personnel is critical to aviation safety. It is time to refocus our efforts and press the FAA to resolve these very significant and complex fatigue issues. I look forward to hearing more about the FAA’s plans on this important issue.
Chairman Costello, thank you again for having this hearing. We have a well-trained NTSB workforce protecting the American traveling public by making safety recommendations. But without implementing their recommendations we only have the warning and not the protection the traveling public deserves.
Statement of the
The Honorable Jerry F. Costello
June 6, 2007
I want to welcome everyone to this hearing on the National Transportation Safety Board’s Most Wanted Aviation Safety Improvements.
I have said time and again that although the has the safest air transportation system in the world, we cannot rely on or be satisified with our past success. We must continue to strive for greater success, because one accident or near accident is one too many.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been investigating accidents and proposing remedies to avoid them since it was founded in 1967. With an overall recommendation acceptance rate of approximately 82 percent by the FAA, important changes and procedures have been made to improve the safety of the traveling public.
Since 1990, the NTSB has kept a Most Wanted List, representing the most serious problems facing the transportation industry. There continues to be significant challenges in aviation safety.
The NTSB’s Most Wanted List has six issue areas for aviation – five of which received an “unacceptable response.” I am not impressed by this statistic, and remain disappointed and concerned that many of these issue areas have been on the list for five, ten or even 15+ years.
For example, runway incursions have been on the Most Wanted List since it began in 1990. While new technologies have come online and are slowly being deployed to our airports, serious incursions continue to occur.
An incident as recently as January 5, 2007 at
Denver
International
Airport , where the NTSB states that two airplanes missed colliding by about 50 feet, remind us of the importance of runway safety.
Further, both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of Transportation Inspector General’s Office (IG) have also highlighted runway incursions as a safety concern; yet, this issue still remains on the Most Wanted List.
I am interested in hearing from both the NTSB and the FAA why these six issue areas remain on the Most Wanted List; what, if any, progress is being made; and when we can expect to see significant improvement in these issue areas.
I am also interested in hearing more about fatigue. Fatigue is an issue that affects all modes of transportation. Aviation is a 24 hour 7 day a week business, with demanding work schedules. We must do more to ensure that allaviation safety professionals are adequately rested and are alert to perform their duties.
Finally, I would like to point out that Gail Dunham, executive director of the National Disaster Alliance/Foundation, is with us today. She represents family members that have lost loved ones in aviation accidents. Gail and her group know firsthand the pain that results when our aviation system is not performing at the highest level of safety possible. She reminds us all that we must demand the highest standards of aviation safety.
We must work together to ensure that we continue asking the tough questions and issue the even tougher and sometimes costly rules to guarantee the highest level of safety for the traveling public. With that, I want to again welcome our witnesses today and I look forward to their testimony.
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