FAA Agent in Crash Probe Changes Stand, Praises USAir Pilot Training

A federal examiner who earlier had been critical of USAir on Wednesday told investigators studying last September’s crash of a USAir jetliner that the airline has good training and certification programs for its pilots.

In his report to the National Transportation Safety Board in December, William Dubis, leader of a Federal Aviation Administration team studying the airline, had criticized some USAir training and proficiency-check programs as “inconsistent,” “lacking realism” and “degraded by an absence of challenge.”

But, on Wednesday, in his testimony before an NTSB panel investigating the crash, Dubis said that the airline is producing safe pilots and there is no need for regulatory change.

Dubis told the panel that it is just a matter of USAir’s changing training techniques in a few areas, and “they’re in the process of doing this at a rapid pace.”

Another FAA official, principal operations inspector James A. Rapucci, testified that he also thought USAir has good training and pilot-evaluation programs.

“USAir operates at a very high level of safety,” Rapucci told the NTSB panel.

NTSB investigators have questioned whether pilot Michael Martin and co-pilot Constantine Kleissas utilized appropriate cockpit procedures last Sept. 20 during an aborted takeoff attempt at La Guardia Airport.

The Boeing 737 jetliner skidded off the end of the runway and into the East River, killing two of the 57 passengers.

On Dec. 15, Dubis submitted his report of a three-week FAA study of the airline’s training and certification programs, which include flight-proficiency tests in simulators and actual aircraft.

The report complained that the training programs “are lacking in ‘real world’ scenarios and result in non-thinking performance, where the ability of the student to demonstrate a mastery of complex problems, good judgment, situational awareness, cockpit management and leadership skills have all been removed.”