49 U.S.C. § 44516 — Human factors program

(a) Human Factors Training.— (1) Air traffic controllers.— The Administrator must (A) deal with the problems the National Research Council raised in its report "The Future of Air Traffic Control" about automating air traffic control, and (B) respond to the Council's recommendations. (2) Pilots and flight crews.— The Administrator must work with aviation industry representatives and university aviation programs to build specific training that addresses critical safety problems, including pilots': (A) recovering from losing control of an aircraft, including handling unusual attitudes and mechanical malfunctions; (B) straying from standard operating procedures, including responding badly to emergencies and bad weather; (C) staying aware of altitude and location relative to the ground, to prevent flying a working aircraft into terrain; and (D) landing and making approaches, including nonprecision approaches and go-arounds. (b) Test Program.— The Administrator must set up a test program with air carriers using model Jeppesen approach plates or similar tools, to make landing approaches more precise. (c) Report.— Within one year of this section becoming law, the Administrator had to send the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee a report on how the FAA was encouraging air carriers to adopt advanced qualification programs. (d) Advanced Qualification Program Defined.— In this section, an "advanced qualification program" is an alternative way to qualify, train, certify, and check the competence of flight crews and other commercial aviation operations staff, who are otherwise covered by the training and testing rules in parts 121 and 135 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.