The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 5, 2009

Our View: Refocus needed on pilot professionalism

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The stunning incompetence of two Northwest Airlines pilots, who overshot Minneapolis by some 150 miles, shook the public’s confidence in airline safety.

It also dismayed someone who intimately knows the industry — the head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Randy Babbitt this week told an international aviation club there is an erosion of professionalism among pilots and said the industry is in an “extreme need to refocus on professionalism.”

While the Northwest incident ended without tragedy, pilot inattention and error have led to deadly crashes. A regional airline that crashed near Buffalo, N.Y., earlier this year killed 50 people. The pilots in that crash made a series of horrific mistakes before the plane stalled and crashed.

Babbitt said those and other incidents are a wake-up call.

“I think that this is a sign of a much bigger problem. I can’t regulate professionalism. With everything we know about human factors, there are still those who just ignore the common sense rules of safety.”

Babbitt’s warnings are especially powerful, considering he is anything but anti-pilot. He is a former airline pilot himself and has been president of the pilots union.

Babbitt reminded the group what professionalism and attention to detail can mean, citing Capt. Cheslea “Sully” Sullenberger and his crew’s safe landing in the Hudson River. “That crew was the epitome of professionalism and a textbook case of focus by everyone, including the controllers.”

Problems with pilot conduct has brought needed congressional interest as legislation is being fashioned that would toughen pilot training and experience requirements.

Babbitt is calling for veteran pilots to mentor less-experienced pilots and for more training to be focused on smaller regional airlines, where the pilots are often less experienced and paid less.

Babbitt’s call for renewed professionalism came just a day before the two Northwest pilots, Timothy Cheney and Richard Cole, appealed their license revocations to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The pilots said they didn’t hear the increasingly urgent attempts to radio the airliner because they had their headsets off and were using their laptops — a violation of airline policy.

While Americans are generally supportive of giving people a second chance, there will be little sympathy for the pilots’ attempts to regain their licenses. There are jobs that simply don’t allow for blatant negligence — being responsible for hundreds of passengers' lives is one of them.

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