ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110081
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALLAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
American Airlines' captains are receiving 20 percent fewer hours of training each year under a program that is under federal scrutiny after a fatal crash in Colombia.
Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines, which has long been seen as the leader in pilot training, made the changes in late 1994.
Now, after four unrelated crashes by American and its Eagle commuters, Federal Aviation Administration investigators are looking at American's training practices.
With the FAA's blessing, American started bringing captains to its Flight Academy once instead of twice a year, according to a company spokesman.
Before the changes, American captains got 10 hours of simulator training annually. Now they get eight hours of simulator training per year during one visit to the Fort Worth school.
At the same time, the airline has added simulator time for co-pilots.
It has also started combining simulator training for captains and first officers. Previously, there had been some individual teaching.
``I think there are probably advantages either way,'' Mike Overly of the Aviation Safety Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and editor of the Aviation Safety Monitor, said of the combined training. ``Sometimes when you have multiple people in the learning environment things are brought up. It can be a distraction, too.''
Under the earlier plan, the first officer or co-pilot had six hours of simulator training one year and four the alternating year. Now, the second-in-command's simulator training hours have increased to eight hours a year and the number of check rides, or test flights, have doubled to once each year instead of each two years.
``Part of the operational, hands-on training ... the captain and first officer are with an instructor and actually fly a [simulated] flight under certain weather conditions, under certain controls,'' said American spokesman John Hotard. ``Not only does each know how to perform his or her task, but it also helps them work together as a team.''
Hotard said he had no comparison costs for training the pilots together and training captains once, instead of twice, each year.
Standards for the commuter line, American Eagle, have not been changed. The turbo-prop division of parent AMR Corp. has already had its training procedures reviewed after an Oct. 31, 1994, crash that killed 68 near Roselawn, Ind., and a crash Dec. 13, 1994, at Raleigh-Durham, N.C., that killed 15.
American itself suggested pilot error may have been involved when Flight 965 from Miami crashed into a mountain Dec. 20 near Cali, Colombia, killing 160 people.
Overly said the Cali crash probably will not be directly attributed to changes in training.
American already had been dealing with a separate investigation of an incident Nov. 12, when a company MD-80 sheared tops of trees before landing at the Hartford, Conn., airport. One person was hurt during the evacuation. The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane went below minimum altitudes.
With the latest federal review, pilot training is being closely examined by the airline, the pilots union and the FAA.
John Clabes, FAA Southwest regional spokesman, said the FAA typically requires training for commercial pilots twice within a 12-month period. Pilots must have simulator training or a check ride every six months, according to regulations.
Hotard said American was granted an exemption to implement the new program.
Clabes said the FAA couldn't comment further on the review, although other FAA officials have said that step is not unusual.
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