Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., wants to reassure travelers that flying is safe.
Bergman, a former commercial airline pilot, appeared on Newsmax Thursday in the wake of several incidents involving airlines, including a Southwest Airlines plane having a near-miss collision with a private business jet at Midway International Airport in Chicago.
"This was a mistake, and there will be appropriate actions taken against that pilot for more retraining and make sure it doesn't happen twice," Bergman, who co-chairs the Aviation Safety Caucus, said on "National Report." "As pilots, we are always on the edge of our seat, literally, especially as it comes to takeoff and landing. The two most challenging parts of any flight."
Bergman said he believes the pilots of the private plane may have been inexperienced and gotten confused.
"It's called selective scheduling. And you don't put two brand new pilots in an aircraft at the same time," Bergman said. "We all have to get our experience through our flight hours, through all those real-world kind of situations that we deal with. But the selective scheduling for pilots, the airlines do it. The military does it. Then you have the private sector to make sure that they are not being expeditious in their scheduling for the wrong reasons. So it's diligence."
Pilots must be aware of their surroundings, Bergman said.
"Let's say the two pilots of the small jet were looking down at their approach plates or their taxi instructions," Bergman said. "One of them should have been looking out of the cockpit. It is all about training. It is all about awareness of your personal surroundings."
The Michigan congressman stressed that flying remains safe.
"The aviation industry is the safest mode of transportation historically and will be for the future," Bergman said. "Because when something bad happens, we tear it apart, figure out what happened, and train and retrain all those involved to get it right — make sure it doesn't happen twice."
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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