Capt. Jason Ambrosi, ALPA’s president, front left, joins Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY), front right, and other labor leaders at a March 26 press conference on Capitol Hill announcing the introduction of the Safer Skies Act.

A bipartisan bill that would address charter-flight vulnerabilities created by a security loophole was introduced in the 119th Congress on March 26. Reps. Nick Langworthy (R-NY), Marc Veasey (D-TX), and Jack Bergman (R-MI) reintroduced the Safer Skies Act, which would ensure that carriers operating under the less-restrictive FAR Part 135 and Part 380 public-charter rules are held to the same security standards as every other scheduled passenger carrier in the United States.

The legislation requires the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to hold Part 135 and Part 380 air carriers that operate scheduled commercial service for passenger operations with more than nine seats to the same security standards as any other U.S. scheduled passenger carrier. Concerningly, a number of Part 135 and Part 380 operators currently conduct scheduled flights to ticketed passengers with publicly available schedules to and from facilities that don’t have the same level of security screening as required for scheduled airline operations under FAR Part 121. This means that the same aircraft can operate out of the same airports without the same security screening standards to which all other airline operations are held.

Capt. Jason Ambrosi, ALPA’s president, joined Langworthy and other labor leaders at a March 26 press conference on Capitol Hill announcing the introduction of the legislation. He stressed the need for a consistent high level of security regardless of an aircraft’s departure point and destination.

“By addressing the security threats created by the current loophole, we close a dangerous precedent that could spark a race to the bottom and wholly undermine aviation security,” said Ambrosi during the press conference. “Carriers should compete on routes and services, but we must never allow them to compete based on safety or less-strict security procedures. Americans, regardless of whether they live in a large metropolitan area like D.C. or in a rural community, deserve the same level of safety and security. The Safer Skies Act is one important step toward what our industry needs at this critical moment in history.”

The bill was crafted with the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, in mind and builds on the security reforms enacted by Congress shortly afterward. As the nation grappled with the horrors of the events, the aviation industry was overhauled, leading to many crucial safety measures that maintain the golden standard of flight today, including the creation of the TSA. Twenty-four years later, Langworthy noted that the lessons from 9/11 are just as relevant today.

“On Sept. 11, 2001, inadequate aviation security enabled an attack on our country that led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 innocent victims, thousands of injuries, and other immeasurable damage to lives, property, and prosperity,” Langworthy asserted.

The Safer Skies Act is one of the first bills to come out of the Aviation Safety Caucus, which was founded last year by Langworthy. Instead of waiting every five years to advocate for necessary aviation safety changes in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, the caucus works year-round to sponsor bills that address the evolving needs of the aviation industry. Langworthy, who chairs the committee, has a long history of engagement with aviation safety and security. The district he now represents was thrust into the national spotlight on Feb. 12, 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a Buffalo, N.Y., home, killing 45 people, including all passengers and crewmembers on board and one person on the ground.

At the time, Langworthy was a congressional staffer serving the district. In his role, he attended the funerals of many of the victims and would later go on to help the families channel their grief into change, lobbying for what we now know as the 1,500-hour training rule. Langworthy noted that this experience was formative to his decision to fight fiercely as a freshman lawmaker for the preservation of the rule in last year’s FAA reauthorization bill, as well as introducing the Safer Skies Act.

“When you share the pain of the heartbreak of people who’ve lost loved ones, it changes how you view things like safety policies,” said Langworthy during the press conference. “So many of us go through life thinking it’ll never happen to me, but the reality is safety can’t be taken for granted. What the families did next was nothing short of amazing. They turned the most tragic moment in their lives into a catalyst for real change, and they decided they couldn’t let this happen to other families. Today it’s my responsibility and the responsibility of our caucus to ensure that those hard-won safety standards aren’t eroded. We must continue to improve and maintain the safeguards and protections of the passengers and crews from preventable tragedies.”

Hours before the press conference, the Part 135 discrepancies were discussed in another corner of Capitol Hill at the House Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee’s oversight hearing for the NTSB. During the hearing, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy was asked about recent aviation accidents and which one of the organization’s safety recommendations she believes is most important to maintaining aviation safety standards for the flying public at every level. Homendy testified that Safety Management Systems (SMS) should be uniform no matter the carrier or destination.

“Commercial airlines have had SMS since 2015, but it’s been a very piecemeal approach across the aviation industry,” testified Homendy. “For…Part 135, that’s charters and air taxis, they began the process of SMS at the FAA, but that hasn’t been finalized. It should be one level of safety for passengers. That’s what we believe, and the piecemeal approach isn’t working.”

ALPA has been a leading voice against charter-flight loopholes for decades. This was most recently evident during the ongoing appeal to stop SkyWest Charter from operating under Part 135 regulations. Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation granted SkyWest’s conditional certification to operate public-charter flights under Part 135 regulations with 30-seat CRJ200s under the guise of “filling air service voids” in small communities. While the ruling was a setback to the legal battle, collaboration with other aviation stakeholders and the introduction of bills like the Safer Skies Act are significant steps to closing these dangerous security loopholes once and for all.

“The stakes are too high to allow any gaps or loopholes in the armor that Americans depend on to keep aviation secure. Every day, we operate tens of thousands of flights, carrying millions of passengers in the United States, and each and every one of them expects consistent and effective security procedures regardless of their airline, origin, or destination,” Ambrosi stated.