On February 12, 2009 Colgan Air flight 3401, operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407, crashed on an instrument while approaching Buffalo – Niagara International Airport. All the 45 passengers and 4 flight crew died, with an additional one person on ground. A year after, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its investigation report. In this report, it was concluded that the sole cause of the accident was the inappropriate control response of the captain to the stick shaker activation, this lead to an accelerated stall of the plane. Furthermore, some other contributing factors were established by the NTSB which included the lackadaisical attitude of the captain towards flight management, failure to adhere to sterile cockpit procedures, improper airmanship on the part of the pilots, and Colgan's procedure inadequacies.
However, at the time of the accident, the flight captain had an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, with an additional accumulated total of 3,379 hours of overall flight time while the first officer held a commercial rating with a total flight time of 2,244 hours. Even though both pilots were experienced, the causes of the crash which included lack of focus led the Federal Aviation Administration to introduce a more rigorous training structure and hours requirements for pilots. Consequently, after the crash, there was a call for legislative action from the Congress by concerned citizens. The Congress responded by declaring the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-216) requiring the FAA to set up specific rules on pilot experience, training and other related actions, which made compulsory that co-pilots and pilots possess an ATP certificate with a minimum 1,500 requirements of flight hours. The FAA responded by issuing rules enacting new flight crew qualification and certification standards, including the minimum total flight hours and ATP requirements for copilots, in July, 2013, and was made effective August 1, 2013.
On the other hand, prior to the rule change, pilots with just 250 hours could he hired by regional carriers and then become trained in an aircraft type.
Oftentimes, pilots will come to the US, where there are more opportunities in the General aviation sector, and also many flying schools to become trained with commercial pilot’s license coupled with multi engine privileges and an instrument rating, as well as writing and passing 14 stages of exams. This phase is called the “frozen" ATPL, which allows the prospective pilot to apply to various places across the world. The rating becomes unfrozen when they hit 1,500 hours which does not take long as most pilots fly about 90 hours per month with a more experienced captain as partner.
Generally, it takes about 18 months to build the 1,500 hours in the US as pilots use the planes to tow banners for advertisements, others perform aerial surveys and some others engage in flying for skydiving operations.
Notably, there has been no fatal accidents since the enactment of the rules, commercial airlines have been blaming the rules for a shortage in the number or pilots. These and some other topics are part of the debate that has been constantly generated since the inception of the rules.
In 2015, there was a congressional debate in the US about cancellation of the 1,500-hour rule, but it never came to pass. Although, various stakeholders desire to lower the requirements especially in the regional airlines sector, which has been faced with gross pilot shortage.
The real question still is whether the new regulation and requirements will enhance air safety, as it worthy to note that the captain of the Colgan plane would probably have checked all the boxes of the 1,500 rule and that its co-pilot had well over 1,500 hours. Therefore, it is more important to watch and instill better discipline in the pilots to avoid happenings like the Colgan incident.