Flight Safety Foundation Calls for Sweeping Changes to Pilot Training

Rob Mark

Tuesday, March 06, 2018 at 10:13 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The U.S. pilot training system is largely unchanged despite modern complexities and lessons from past accidents, leading to debate over the efficacy of current regulations like the 1,500-hour flight time requirement for airline pilots.
The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) advocates for a shift from anecdote-based safety improvements to a pragmatic, data-driven, competency-based approach for pilot training, questioning the sole reliance on flight hours.
FSF suggests evaluating successful global *ab initio* programs, improving pilot screening, focusing on non-technical competencies, leveraging simulation, and enhancing instructor quality to ensure pilots demonstrate readiness and critical skills.

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The pilot training system in the United States has remained essentially unchanged for the past 50 or 60 years, with just a few notable exceptions. New technologies have added complexity to the training process, while loss of control accidents have focused everyone on how much we actually did not know about how airplanes fly.