StoopTroup
7/7/2011, 07:09 PM
Inhofe to introduce 'Pilot's Bill of Rights'
WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, a veteran pilot who agreed to take remedial training after he landed on a closed runway in Texas, announced Tuesday that he has prepared a bill to add more fairness to Federal Aviation Administration enforcement actions.
"It's our job in Congress to ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to prevent agency overreach," the Oklahoma Republican said in a preview of what is expected to be called the Pilot's Bill of Rights. "This bill provides that."
Inhofe said his legislation will be introduced Wednesday and would require pilots facing enforcement actions to be given all relevant evidence, including air traffic communication tapes, before action could proceed.
"Now that is just a matter of fairness," he said. "If a person is going to be accused of something, he has to know what he is being accused of."
Inhofe said that before his own recent experience with the FAA, he believed that air traffic controller recordings had to be kept and made available to pilots.
"I found out that isn't true," he said. "When I tried to get the voice recording, it took me four months, and I'm a United States senator."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=505&articleid=20110706_16_A11_CUTLIN890205
WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, a veteran pilot who agreed to take remedial training after he landed on a closed runway in Texas, announced Tuesday that he has prepared a bill to add more fairness to Federal Aviation Administration enforcement actions.
"It's our job in Congress to ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to prevent agency overreach," the Oklahoma Republican said in a preview of what is expected to be called the Pilot's Bill of Rights. "This bill provides that."
Inhofe said his legislation will be introduced Wednesday and would require pilots facing enforcement actions to be given all relevant evidence, including air traffic communication tapes, before action could proceed.
"Now that is just a matter of fairness," he said. "If a person is going to be accused of something, he has to know what he is being accused of."
Inhofe said that before his own recent experience with the FAA, he believed that air traffic controller recordings had to be kept and made available to pilots.
"I found out that isn't true," he said. "When I tried to get the voice recording, it took me four months, and I'm a United States senator."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=505&articleid=20110706_16_A11_CUTLIN890205