Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with leaders of the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) over coffee at the Mayflower hotel in downtown Washington. Based in Louisville, Ky., site of the UPS Worldport international air hub, the IPA represents 2,650 pilots who fly freight for Big Brown. The delegation was visiting the nation’s capital to inform lawmakers about the FAA’s decision to exempt all-cargo airlines from its new flightcrew member duty and rest requirements “because their compliance costs significantly exceed the quantified societal benefits.” The IPA wants the so-called cargo “carveout” removed from the FAA rule, which it is challenging in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Capt. Robert Travis, IPA president, contends “one level of safety” was the intent of the Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010, which introduced new safety provisions in the wake of the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. He argued that cargo pilots fly the same aircraft in the same airspace as their passenger-carrying brethren, and thus are subject to the same fatigue. First officer Lauri Esposito, who served on the aviation rulemaking committee that helped develop the “science-based” duty rule, suggested cargo pilots might be even more prone to fatigue. “Operating on the back side of the clock, across multiple times zones, is exclusively what we do,” she said.
