FAA Plans New Database of Pilot Records

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to establish an electronic database to provide potential employers with speedy access to information about a pilot’s flight experience.
The database would give potential employers access to information in less than an hour. Under the existing system, it has taken up to 30 days for them to retrieve such information, the FAA said.
The FAA’s proposal was published Monday as a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register.
“As a commercial pilot and former airline executive, I know the importance of this data in making sure that air carriers hire only those pilots that meet the standards the American people expect,” FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said. “Quick access to this information allows them to make more informed hiring decisions.”
The FAA said that the proposed database would comply with federal privacy laws and requirements established in legislation approved by Congress.
The FAA said its proposal was prompted by two accidents ─ the July 13, 2003, ditching of Air Sunshine Flight 527, which killed two passengers, and the Feb. 12, 2009, crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which killed 49 people in the airplane and one person on the ground.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said its investigation of the Air Sunshine accident, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Bahamas, found that the pilot “had a history of below-average flight proficiency.” The investigation prompted the NTSB to recommend that the FAA require carriers to “obtain any notices of disapproval for flight checks for certificates and ratings for all pilot-applicants and evaluate this information before making a hiring decision.”
The NTSB said its investigation of the Colgan accident identified numerous safety issues, including deficiencies in Colgan’s recordkeeping system and its analysis of pilot qualifications and previous performance. In a safety recommendation resulting from the investigation, the NTSB called on the FAA to require operators to provide training records to hiring employers. In the aftermath of the crash, families of the passengers lobbied extensively for legislation to require that training records be made more accessible to pilots’ future employers.
The proposal will be subject to public comment until June 29.