Pilots union is urging the FAA to reject a petition from the airline industry seeking another two years to install secondary flight deck barriers.
Inside the cockpit of a WestJet 787-9. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Mateen Kontoravdis)
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) on Tuesday slammed a petition by major airlines seeking to delay a requirement to install new flight deck security barriers.
The FAA in 2023 decided that airlines would have to set up secondary security barriers to safeguard an airplane’s cockpit even when the flight deck’s doors are open. The rule is meant to reduce intrusions from unauthorized individuals.
The airlines have until August of this year to install the barriers, but Airlines for America, the lobbying group that represents most major U.S. carriers, filed a petition asking for an additional two years.
ALPA, which represents about 79,000 U.S. and Canadian pilots, backs the barrier rule and criticized the airlines for fighting a regulation that would better protect its members.
“ALPA has long advocated for installed secondary flight deck barriers and was proud to lead the charge to enact legislation implementing this critical security enhancement,” ALPA President Jason Ambrosi said in a statement. “The airlines have had two years to implement these requirements, yet they are now requesting an extension for the same time granted to them by the final rule. We urge the FAA to reject this latest stalling tactic and implement, without delay, the secondary barrier requirement as Congress mandated.”
The airlines maintain they cannot comply with the FAA’s order because the agency has not certified a secondary barrier from any original equipment manufacturer. Because of this, no barriers have been installed, no manuals or procedures have been developed, and no training program for air crews has been submitted to the FAA for review.
“At no fault of their own and due to unforeseen delays in [installed physical secondary barrier] certification, subject operators now face compliance impossibility, at worst, or extreme hardship, at best,” Airlines for America wrote in its petition. “In sum, relief is necessary to avoid the significant adverse impacts to the traveling public and operators that will result from the inability to operate aircraft equipped with an [installed physical secondary barrier].”
ALPA has lobbied for years in favor of secondary flight deck barriers following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In 2018, Congress passed a law requiring the FAA to come up with a new rule requiring the protections, but it took five more years before the agency finalized it. The pilots’ union accused the FAA of giving way to “special interests” and stalling the measure.
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