August 23, 2016
ASO’s Safety Council: Advancing Safety for ALPA Pilots
The Air Safety Organization’s Safety Council convened under the chairmanship of Capt. Brian Moynihan (Alaska) on Tuesday. The session, which gathered nearly 40 safety representatives from a large number of U.S. and Canadian airlines, covered topics such as aviation safety data programs and data fusion, UAS rule updates, training developments and CRM proposals, environmental issues, and fume events in the cockpit.
With the Part 107 rules governing commercial operations of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) going into effect on Monday, F/O Bryan Lesko (United) described the threat posed by unregulated hobbyists and the low training requirements for commercial UAS pilots.
ALPA Aviation Safety chairman Capt. Chuck Hogeman (United) presented the flow of voluntary safety data to airlines via FOQA and ASAP to the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program. He also highlighted the benefit of individual airline implementation of Crosstalk, which compares FOQA and ASAP data for identification of trends that may otherwise not be identifiable.
He also discussed “data fusion,” the process of combining airline-provided de-identified safety data with weather, radar, and external data to supercharge information for ASIAS. This provides an opportunity to make aviation even safer, and ALPA is working tirelessly to protect the identity of those reporting this data throughout the process to assure the incoming reports remain robust.
Capt. Eric Tellmann (Spirit) presented his findings of toxic “fume events,” emphasizing changing aircraft procedures to reduce exposure and the importance of reporting such events. He wants all pilots to be aware of the possible health effects of chemicals present in various fumes onboard the aircraft.
Capt. Frank Cheeseman (United) of the ASO’s Human Factors & Training group reported on the Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee’s work to maintain air transport pilot qualification rules, explore alternative paths to the R-ATP, improve flight path management capabilities, and enhance crew resource management. He also updated pilots about the FAA’s upcoming upset recovery training requirements.
ALPA members: for a sneak peek into the upset recovery training development, watch the video.
F/O Jeff Mee (United) offered a glimpse into a new advanced security course to start in 2017, and described the inner workings of ALPA’s Accident Investigation Board, including ALPA’s participation in four notable accident investigations in 2015.
Capt. Kathi Hurst (United) updated the council on proposed ICAO aircraft carbon-emission standards that will affect air travel in the future. She also reported potential threats to the safety and profitability of the industry, from imposing changes to air traffic management, to the forced retirements of inefficient or noisy aircraft, to requirements for use of alternative fuel sources.
The next Safety Council meeting is slated for 2017.
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