Small Airlines Ordered to Improve Safety : Flight: The FAA says commuter carriers must meet the same standards as big fliers. New equipment, fewer flying hours for pilots are required.

Small commuter airlines will have to bring their safety standards up to those of the major carriers and reduce flying hours for pilots under new rules issued Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Whether you fly on a jumbo jet or a 10-seat aircraft, I want all Americans flying on planes with the same high level of safety,” Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said.

Operators of commercial planes with 30 or fewer seats will be required to upgrade pilot training, install extra safety equipment, improve ground de-icing programs, limit maximum flying time of pilots to 10 hours per day and retire pilots at age 60.

Short commuter flights have been one of the fastest-growing segments of the airline industry over the last two decades.

Last year, small commuter airlines logged more than 2.3 million flight hours, nearly three times the level of the early 1970s, the FAA said. This compares to 12 million flight hours last year for major carriers.

But a series of deadly crashes raised concerns about overtired pilots and second-class safety standards, and Pena vowed to bring the regulatory standards into line for all commercial aircraft.

“We have today made an impressive move forward by government, labor and industry toward our mutual goal of ‘zero accidents,’ ” Pena said.

The move to a single safety standard was applauded by the Air Line Pilots Assn. and the Regional Airline Assn. but was condemned as costly and unnecessary by other industry groups.

“This rule will cause extreme financial burdens on what are mostly small aviation businesses,” said James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Assn.

The FAA said the rule will cost commuter airlines $75 million over the next 15 years. This amounts to 30 cents per passenger on planes with 20 to 30 seats and 62 cents per passenger on planes with 10 to 19 seats.

An aviation safety expert predicted that the higher standards will bring some increase in safety but said he doubts that they would have a major impact.

“None of the rules change the basic environment in which the commuter airlines operate, which is one of frequent takeoffs and landings and flying below the clouds. That is what increases the accident rate,” said Mike Overly, editor of the Aviation Safety Monitor in Worthington, Ohio.

He also noted that commuter airlines will continue to have younger, less experienced pilots.

Overly also predicted that upgraded equipment and safety standards will prove too costly for some very small commuter carriers with one or two planes.

“It costs money to add this equipment, so I think it means some of the weaker operators are not going to be in business,” he said.

Worries about overtired pilots prompted a series of new restrictions on maximum duty time. Studies by NASA and the DLR-Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Germany demonstrated that fatigue from long hours can lead to errors by pilots.

Based on that research, the new rules limit pilots in two-member crews to a maximum of 14 straight hours on duty, down from 16 hours. And of this, they can fly no more than 10 hours.

In addition, pilots must have at least one 36-hour break per week, up from the current 24-hour requirement.

The 60-year-old retirement age, now standard for major carriers, will be phased in over four years, the FAA said.

Currently, there are about 8,000 commuter pilots in the nation, and of these, 200, or 2.5%, are over age 60.