FAA Tells Airlines to Avoid Teaming Inexperienced Pilots in Cockpits

The Federal Aviation Administration called on airlines Thursday to avoid teaming inexperienced pilots in the cockpit, citing concern about the experience level of the pilots in the crash of a Continental Airlines jet in November.

In addition, the agency announced tighter restrictions on aircraft maintenance and released year-end statistics showing a 26% increase in reports of near-collisions--1,056 compared with 840 the previous year--filed by pilots during 1987.

Of about 900 incidents investigated, 18% were found to have been “critical,” with the aircraft having flown within 100 feet of each other, FAA officials said.

Airways Are ‘Safe’

FAA Administrator T. Allan McArtor said that “we are witnessing a crisis in public confidence in flying,” but he maintained that the airways are “safe and healthy” despite some areas of concern.

McArtor said the FAA has asked the airlines “to stress the importance of not putting two pilots in the same cockpit if they both have relatively little experience in the type of airplane they are flying.”

The warning, which McArtor said could turn into mandatory requirements if not heeded by the airlines, grew out of the Continental accident on Nov. 15 at Denver’s Stapleton International Airport that killed 28 of the 82 people aboard a DC-9, including both pilots.

McArtor emphasized that there is no indication so far that pilot inexperience was to blame for the crash, which occurred on takeoff during a snowstorm.

The accident prompted FAA concern over how airlines team their flight crews because both crewmen had relatively little experience flying DC-9s--the captain with 33 hours as a captain and the co-pilot, who was at the controls, with 36 hours.

Bad-Weather Takeoffs

The FAA advised air carriers to schedule their flight crews to avoid teaming pilots with little flight time on the aircraft being flown. It said also that airlines should require the senior officer to fly takeoffs in poor weather if the co-pilot has less than 100 hours of flying time on the plane.

In addition, McArtor said the FAA has directed airlines to take steps that would reduce the amount of deferred maintenance on aircraft by making repairs more promptly.

He said carriers have been practicing “gamesmanship” in connection with making prompt repairs on equipment that does not directly interfere in a plane’s being considered airworthy.