Congress enacts legislation on state air traffic control

Congress began examining critical aviation laws on Tuesday after recent close skirmishes involving airliners and cargo jets at airports in New York and Texas.

Lawmakers celebrated the low number of deaths on flights in the United States since a crash in 2009 that killed 50 people, but took note of recent frightening incidents.

“It shows that even after the safest decade in our history, our aviation system clearly needs urgent attention,” said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

The Graves Committee held its first must-pass law hearing to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration by Sept. 30. The FAA regulates airlines and aircraft manufacturers and manages the nation’s airspace.

The hearing highlighted issues ranging from FAA technology – which collapsed last month and grounded US air travel for a day – to the size of airline seats.

FAA legislation usually focuses on safety, and that likely will be the case again this year. Consumer groups are also urging Congress to include a number of passenger-friendly regulations opposed by the airline industry. Some of the proposals would require airlines to:

— Quickly transfer passengers whose flights are canceled or significantly delayed to another flight – even if it means paying to put them on a competing airline.

— Increase in compensation and reimbursement of expenses for passengers affected by delays and cancellations.

— allow parents and minor children to sit together without paying additional seat allocation fees; The groups say a 2016 directive to the Department of Transport has been delayed.

— Include a seat, boarding pass, carry-on baggage, personal items and water in the price of all tickets.

It’s not clear that anything Congress could do would have prevented close connections between the planes at New York’s JFK airport last month when an American Airlines plane taxied over a runway occupied by a Delta Air Lines jet and last weekend in Austin, Texas, when air traffic controllers cleared a FedEx cargo plane to land on a runway where a Southwest Airlines jet was taking off. In both cases, a catastrophe could be averted by quick reactions by air traffic controllers or pilots.

Lawmakers pressed an FAA official and other witnesses about technology upgrades, the need for faster emergency evacuations and the minimum experience for airline pilots — which was raised from 250 flight hours to 1,500 hours after the 2009 crash.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., asked if more exemptions to the 1,500-hour rule were needed so airlines would have enough pilots to serve smaller communities.

No, said Jason Ambrosi, President of the Air Line Pilots Association, while defending current standards for pilots.

“We’re in the safest phase in aviation history right now, and a lot of that is because of these very rules,” he said.

David King, The Associated Press

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