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Senators Seek Safety Probe Of Regional Airlines

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May 19, 2009 2:20 pm US/Eastern

Senators Seek Safety Probe Of Regional Airlines

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― Four senators, including the chairman of the Senate's aviation panel, have asked a government watchdog to investigate safety enforcement at regional airlines.

In a letter released Tuesday, the senators told Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel that the circumstances of the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo in February raised questions about the Federal Aviation Administration's enforcement of regulations related to pilot training and crew rest at regional carriers.

"Adequate pilot training and rest is a basic prerequisite to make certain the air transportation system achieves a high level of safety," the letter said. "Such regulations, however, must be paired with vigorous FAA oversight of airline compliance to have a credible effect."

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-.N.D., chairman of the commerce committee's aviation subcommittee, also raised the issue with Randy Babbitt, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to head the FAA, at a confirmation hearing Tuesday. Dorgan said he was "just furious" about testimony during a National Transportation Safety Board hearing last week suggesting that flaws in pilot hiring and training, as well as fatigue, may have contributed to the crash, which killed all 49 people aboard and one man on the ground.

Dorgan asked Babbitt if the same safety standards that apply to larger airlines also apply to regional carriers.

Babbitt, a former Air Line Pilots Association president and one time Eastern Airlines pilot, said there use to be less rigorous standards for regional carriers, but that changes he helped develop in the early 1990s were supposed to bring regional airlines up to the same safety standards as larger carriers.

Dorgan said he plans to hold a hearing June 10 on safety at regional airlines.

Other senators signing the letter were Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; the committee's senior Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and the aviation subcommittee's senior Republican, Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

Scovel and an FAA spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scovel is the sixth Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He was sworn in on October 27, 2006.

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(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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