Hands-On Safety and Security Experts
By Capt. Jason Ambrosi, ALPA President
Advocating for safety and security is critical to our success as a union. Every safe takeoff and landing is a testament to the strong foundation we’ve built. We’ve come a long way from the days when half of ALPA’s founders died in airline accidents, but the tragic accident in Washington, D.C., earlier this year is a reminder that we can and must always improve.
We advance safety and security through every available avenue. The pages of Air Line Pilot have chronicled the improvements ALPA pilots have spearheaded over nine decades, and this issue is no different. I recently joined Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) for a press conference introducing the Safer Skies Act, the latest legislative action to close a loophole in security screening standards. This legislation would hold FAR Part 135 and Part 380 air carriers that operate scheduled commercial service for passenger operations with more than nine seats to the same security standards as any other U.S. scheduled passenger carrier.
By addressing this security threat, we’re closing a dangerous loophole that would spark a race to the bottom and wholly undermine aviation security. Airlines compete on price, services, and routes, but we must never compete on safety and security standards. Through our engagement on Capitol Hill and in the halls of Parliament, we ensure that safety and security are always the primary focus of our industry, regulators, and lawmakers.
Working with lawmakers to pass legislation is only one of the tools available to us to effect change. Since the new Congress and administration took office, I’ve had several meetings with various leaders, including Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau, to build relationships and advocate for ALPA’s safety and security priorities.
As the largest nongovernmental aviation safety organization and by ALPA pilots speaking with one unified voice, our union drives progress at all levels of government and within the airline industry. We’re proud to work with partners across the industry to study and identify areas of improvement for safety and security.
In the pilot contracts we negotiate, we’re steadily adding provisions to limit the implementation of reduced-crew and single-pilot operations by airlines. We’ve currently added contract language in nearly a dozen of our pilot agreements.
Having only one pilot on the flight deck during any phase of flight is a clear, common-sense threat to safety. And allowing some airlines to use less-strict passenger security screening standards despite flying the same airplanes from the same airports is a clear, common-sense threat to security.
Some of the most critical moments our union faces come in the aftermath of an accident. Today, our industry’s safety is under intense scrutiny. Yet, as we recover from a tragedy not experienced in the United States in more than 16 years, we’ve had to continuously set the record straight. From false accusations and assumptions online fueled by sensational news media headlines to overgeneralization or simplification of an accounting of aviation events, ALPA’s credibility and reputation have been critical in maintaining a fact-based perspective. We must support our members and their families, participate in the accident investigation to identify the causes, and use what we learn through the investigation to bring about new laws and regulations to ensure that similar accidents never happen again.
One of the best tools available to proactively improve our system is the use of data to identify potential safety and security issues. By improving aviation safety data sources and using more predictive analytical methods, we can enable better monitoring and prediction and prognostic capabilities to more effectively mitigate risk before an accident occurs.
Pilots will always be key to improving safety because we have real-world, hands-on experience in the aviation operating environment. We can identify potential problems, provide solutions, and help to implement them in the real world by sharing our knowledge of airline operations.
Improving and advocating for safety and security is the foundation of our work as a union, and we’ll never stop working to make our skies safer and more secure.