Co-pilot Training To Become More Rigorous

By Author: Steve Robinson
Total Articles: 468
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As important as cheap travel is to most travelers, including cheap airplane tickets, cheap vacation packages, discount hotel rooms and cheap auto rentals, no one wants to experience pilot error while in the air that could endanger their lives.

Pilots flying for U.S. airlines (whether passenger or cargo) are going to need more cockpit training to become fully certified first officers.

This safety change was ordered by Congress and issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in early July largely as a result of a 2009 commuter plane crash. Pilot training has become an even bigger concern lately as a result of Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco.

Under the new rules, which take effect on August 1st, co-pilots will be required to complete 1,500 hours as a pilot vs. first officers previously only being required to have a commercial pilot certificate which could be acquired with 250 hours of flight time.

The new rule also mandates first officers be given new training and testing specific to the planes they will be flying. One of the objectives of the rule, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, ...
... is that first officers be given a stronger foundation of aeronautical knowledge and experience before they fly for an airline.

Currently new pilots for U.S. airlines usually first fly for regional airlines, which operate smaller jets domestically. Typically airline cockpit crews include two pilots: a captain and a first officer.

In February 2009 a Colgan Air commuter plane outside of Buffalo crashed killing 49 people. Pilot error and inadequate training were blamed. Congress responded to this crash by ordering the new rule change and updating regulations on crew scheduling and rest.

Pilot training questions have risen again in response to the first major U.S. airline accident since the Colgan tragedy when an Asiana Boeing 777 crashed landed at San Francisco International Airport.

The captain, who had control of the plane when it crashed, had only limited flight hours on 777s although he was experienced in flying other Boeing and Airbus jetliners.

There were three captains on this flight. Captain Lee Kang-kook was the pilot receiving his initial operating experience (IOE) training on the 777 and was operating the controls under the supervision of captain Lee Jeong-min who had 3,220 hours of flying experience with the 777.

Captain Lee Kang-kook only had 43 hours experience flying the 777 and was about halfway through Asiana’s IOE requirements. He had a total of 9,793 hours of flying experience.
This was Kang-kook’s first landing at San Francisco in this type of aircraft. He had previously landed at this airport in other planes including the Boeing 747. It was his ninth training flight in the 777 and Lee Jeong-min’s first flight as an instructor. This was the first time the two pilots had flown together.
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