Senator seeks to remove cargo exclusion from FAA rest rule

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill that would eliminate the exclusion of all-cargo operators from the FAA’s new Flightcrew Member Duty and Rest Requirements.    Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill that would eliminate the exclusion of all-cargo operators from the FAA’s new Flightcrew Member Duty and Rest Requirements, according to a statement from the Independent Pilots Association (IPA).
  The new FAA rules, similar to rest and restart requirements for truck drivers, are designed to increase the safety of passenger flight operations by limiting the potential for fatigue among pilots.
   Some airfreight industry advocates, however, have lamented the FAA’s decision to exempt cargo-only airlines from the new regulations.
   IPA, which represents pilots working for parcel giant UPS, applauded the move. The union last week made oral arguments to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a lawsuit challenging the exclusion of freight airlines from the rules.
   The group said Klobuchar’s amendment would “establish one level of aviation safety by applying the same fatigue rules currently followed by passenger airline pilots.”
   “Senator Klobuchar’s stand to fix this deeply flawed, two-tiered safety standard will end the cargo carve-out that leaves our pilots subject to rules that do not reflect the best available science about pilot fatigue,” IPA President Captain Robert Travis said of the amendment. “As pilots who fly nightly across multiple time zones, we are grateful for Senator Klobuchar’s leadership and efforts on this issue, along with those of Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who initially introduced the Safe Skies legislation in the United States Senate.”
   Klobuchar is an original cosponsor Boxer’s Safe Skies Act (S. 1612).