AVIATION SAFETY MANAGEMENT: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1984 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES AND OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Cardiss Collins (chairwoman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Cardiss Collins, Major R. Owens, Tom Lantos, Gerald D. Kleczka, Raymond J. McGrath, Alfred A. (Al) McCandless, and Dan Schaefer. Also present: Michael Skrak, staff director; Quentin Burgess, professional staff member; and Cecelia Morton, clerk. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRWOMAN COLLINS Mrs. COLLINS. This hearing of the Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee will come to order. Good morning. Today, we will begin 2 days of hearings on airline safety management. Since deregulation of the airline industry in 1978, there's been a persistent concern that safety management would be compromised as a result. I'm pleased to note that the evidence to date has been to the contrary. Safety has not been compromised, even though there are three times the number of carriers operating today than prior to deregulation. The airline industry is justifiably proud of its safety record and should be commended for such. I'm aware of the industry's concerns for the impact of these hearings. For the record, I'd like to make it clear that it is not the subcommittee's purpose to single out any carrier or carriers as unsafe. Nor is it our purpose to reopen previous aviation accidents. Our purpose in holding these hearings is to examine the surveillance and investigative policies and procedures of the Federal Aviation Administration. These FAA policies and procedures are particularly important today when many carriers are confronted with financial, labor, and other difficulties which could infringe on safety. Concern for safety has been demonstrated by Transportation Secretary Dole, who earlier this year, initiated the National Air Transportation Inspection Program, which encompasses a detailed safety audit of over 350 carriers. As one who has experienced first (1) hand the tragic consequences of a crash and who flies on a weekly basis, I applaud this initiative. I think we all agree that safety should never be compromised for any expediency. However, in recent weeks and months, the public has witnessed a series of safety allegations directed against a specific carrier, Continental Airlines, by the Air Line Pilots Association [ALPA]. Many believe that the ALPA allegations have little to do with safety, but result from the protracted labor dispute between ALPA and Continental. It is not our intent to examine the labor and bankruptcy issues involved in this dispute. We are, however, very interested in reviewing the responses of the FAA to ALPA's allegations and what steps the FAA has taken to ensure that Continental operates and maintains its fleet with the highest degree of safety. In an attempt to hear the views of all sides of this issue, we also invited the Regional Airline Association and the Air Transport Association to testify. However, because of scheduling and other commitments, they could not be here to present their testimony. The Air Transport Association's testimony, without objection, will be inserted at this time in the record. [The prepared statement follows:] Statement of the Air Transport Association of America The Air Transport Association, on behalf of its 34 member airlines, appreciates the opportunity to present to the committee the following statement concerning the safety of air travel. There is one fundamental place to begin this discussion and that is with a simple statement airlines are safe. Air travel is safe because the men and women of the airline industry at all levels regard safety as the most compelling requirement of air transportation. Also crucial to air transportation safety are the continuing oversight of the Congress and the roles of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, including the accident reports and the safety recommendations of the NTSB. Whatever may be said about air transportation, whether in a regulated or deregulated environment, the immutable requirement of air travel has always been and must always be safety. Most emphatically, there must never be any complacency whatsoever on a matter which requires ceaseless vigilance. Thus, the interest of this committee is most understandable. It is noteworthy to reflect that when Congress in 1977 and 1978 voted airline economic deregulation, it wisely insisted that safety not be deregulated. The Congress reinforced this determination with a requirement that the Secretary of Transportation report annually on aviation safety. most recent of these to the Congress last August. Secretary Elizabeth Dole sent the calendar year 1982, Secretary Dole said, "In neither this, nor in any of the preceding reports, has any adverse correlation been established between aviation safety and the deregulated industry environment." More recently, reporting on the first phase of the so-called "white glove" safety inspection of all of the nation's airlines, Secretary Dole said, "We have, first and foremost, a safe system." The Secretary said the inspections showed a high level of air carrier compliance with FAA regulatory standards. This "white glove" inspection was more than some cursory review. It involved more than 14,000 inspections of 350 air carriers by more than 800 inspectors. What about the safety statistics of air transportation? What, in concrete terms, has been the result of this commitment to safety by the Congress, by the Executive branch and, most especially, by all the men and women of the airline industry in the period of airline economic deregulation? In the more than 25 years of commercial jet operations, there has been no safer period than the five years since airline deregulation. For the committee's interest, attached at the end of this statement is a chart showing the five-year average accient rates for that period. As of today, U.S. airlines, making about 14,000 daily flights, have carried more than 500 million passengers on some eight million jet flights without a single passenger fatality since July 1982. The airlines are safe safe enough so that the logical reaction of a traveler upon boarding an airliner ought to be a sigh of relief relief that he or she survived the truly dangerous segment of the journey to the airport. the car ride from office or home Some have asked whether poor airline earnings over the past several years have affected safety. The answer is no. During the recent recession and the heightened competition in a newly deregulated environment, the airlines compiled their |