MARY KIRBY / WASHINGTON DC
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is close to launching a test programme to allow commercial airline pilots to again use offline cockpit jumpseats.
After 11 September 2001, the US government prohibited pilots from occupying jumpseats when not travelling on their own airline's aircraft, or those of their codeshare partners, as part of newly implemented security measures.
Since then, a committee spearheaded by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) in conjunction with the Air Transport Association (ATA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration, has developed a proposal for US airlines to use a shared computer database system to positively identify a jumpseat applicant and verify his or her employment with a carrier, in the hope of alleviating TSA's security concerns about jumpseat pilot identification.
Under the leadership of ALPA vice-president Dennis Dolan, the coalition is confident the proposal, which is now before the TSA, will be approved. Under the six-month pilot programme, use of the jumpseat would be permitted for ATA airline employees, air traffic controllers and other FAA employees, plus Department of Defense couriers.
The programme is a way of "just getting back to where we were" before 11 September, says Dolan. At the end of the six months TSA will assess the results of the project and determine whether to make the programme permanent.
Source: Flight International
