Originally Posted by
Old Fella
Airbubba, I noted the article you provided the link to was dated 2000. Is it still valid in terms of Rescue and Firefighting Services as they apply to freight ops?
I'm not sure, maybe Huck would have recent knowledge about this subject from Tigers' successor FedEx.
Rest rules in the U.S. are different for the freight dogs due to a 'cargo cutout' provision in FAR Part 117:
One Level Of Safety Needed In Flawed Flight Duty And Rest Regulations
By Jim Douglas
January 26, 2012 - More than a dozen pilots from a number of ALPA pilot groups have been in Washington, D.C., working with Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Government Affairs staff aggressively lobbying members of Congress in support of “One Level of Safety” for cargo and passenger pilots.
In just two weeks, ALPA pilots met face-to-face with more than 50 congressional offices on this important issue, advocating for legislation to include cargo operations in the new FAR 117 pilot fatigue rule. Is it going to take a tragedy before we properly apply the new flight duty and rest rules?
ALPA pilots are also hand-delivering a letter from Capt. Moak urging Congress to complete work on the FAA reauthorization bill. ALPA’s work to include cargo operations on the new pilot fatigue rule will be ongoing, with pilots regularly visiting Capitol Hill to advocate for One Level of Safety.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently released the new flight duty and rest regulations required by the Airline Safety and Federal FAA Extension Act of 2010. These long awaited regulations were on the National Transportation Safety Board’s most wanted list for over twenty years and sought by airline labor groups for nearly as long.
One Level Of Safety Needed In Flawed Flight Duty And Rest Regulations
Large cargo planes operated by U.S. carriers certainly seem to have a high hull loss rate compared passenger carriers in the last couple of decades as we have discussed on past threads here:
Originally Posted by
Council Van
FedEx crash record appears to be awful, if they were moving people no one would travel with them. Would the aviation authorities even allow them to continue to operate. I guess the insurance premiums are sky high as well.
As I observed here in 2006:
>>by now FED EX must have one of the worst hull loss records in the industry!
Sadly, FedEx seems to have a widebody hull loss every two or three years. If they were a pax carrier there would be enormous adverse publicity and probably many casualties as well.
I've got friends over at FedEx who tell me the FAA has been all over their training for years now. Instead of annual AQP sim checks like most U.S. carriers, they are under a closely monitored old style six month program.
The pilot flying in the December 2003 MD-10 hard landing and fire at MEM had a history of busted checkrides before she was hired. In April, 1994 the feds pulled her ATP after an FAA inspector observed her performance. She took more training and got the ATP back and was hired by FedEx in 1996. At FedEx she had more checkride failures, a couple of DUI's and an altitude bust that set up the fateful Mad Dog line check back into MEM. Is it possible that "diversity" was promoted over performance in this case? A possibly similar precedent at FedEx was the overlooked poor employment history of Auburn Calloway who brutally attempted to hijack a FedEx DC-10 in MEM in 1994.
Traditionally, FedEx has had very high employment standards for the freight world, i.e. almost all pilots have college degrees (well, there are some Naval Academy graduates <g>) and many are like the founder, Fred Smith, ex-military aviators [I was later corrected on this point, Fred was a Marine officer but not an Aviator - Airbubba]. The company is consistently profitable and maintenance is excellent by most accounts.
Still, the mishaps and hull losses continue at what everyone agrees is an unacceptable rate...
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/2...ml#post2746987
Whether lower safety standards are acceptable for cargo airlines continues to be a hotly debated question for the unions, the companies and the feds.
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...ml#post9560487