‘Flying In America Is Incredibly Safe’: John Fetterman Reaffirms Air Travel Safety Amid FAA Issues

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During Wednesday’s Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) spoke about the safety of U.S. air travel.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Fetterman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:10Hi. So, hi. Hello, everybody. And now, I think it really needs to be said more, more.

00:18Flying in America is incredibly safe. It's incredibly safe. I mean, I, and I think most

00:24of my colleagues, many of them, I spend maybe 46, 47 weeks out of 52 flying in that. I was

00:32actually, my plane was in the, in that airspace about half an hour or so earlier before that

00:38tragedy in DCA. Now, that, and that was really the first accident in, I guess, quite a while.

00:44So, so I really want to remind people that that is still incredibly safe. And I refuse to play in

00:50the blame. It's his guy. That's probably, it's this, this, that other thing. So I just really

00:54want to make sure we can agree that's very bipartisan. We want to have, make safe, make

01:00flying safer, but, but not turning it into like a, like a finger pointing a thing. So, so for,

01:06for me now, now we've, we've constantly heard there's a lot of shortage of air traffic controllers.

01:12And, and we know it's sometimes it might be difficult for the FAA to meet their staffing

01:17goals. Now we have what I would describe the, the Harvard of air traffic control schools in Beaver

01:24County in my state, which plays a huge role in training the next generation of the air traffic

01:30controllers. So Mr. McIntosh, can you speak to the importance of training schools like the ones that

01:36I addressed in the air traffic controller shortage? I believe to your question, Senator, and thank you

01:44for the affirmation that it's still safe to fly. It is extremely safe to fly. Thank you for that.

01:49In regards to, uh, schools that, uh, offer, uh, programs, uh, to be an air traffic controller,

01:55uh, a hundred percent agree that these schools are essential for our continued pipeline. So whether

02:02it's a collegiate training initiative that you're speaking to or the enhanced collegiate training

02:07initiative, uh, if this offers additional people into our, our training pipeline, that's pivotal

02:13for us to increase, uh, our, our candidate pool, as well as ensuring that we have enough controllers.

02:19Yeah. So, uh, sorry, are you able to commit to, uh, again, you're going to support these kinds of

02:24programming. That's been a lot of sense, right? Obviously we, we support the collegiate training

02:28initiative and the enhanced one as well. Yes, Senator.

02:30Okay. So, um, essential air service is a lifeline in Pennsylvania,

02:35Pennsylvania, and it brings smaller communities that otherwise wouldn't have those kinds of

02:40things. Now, in my state, we have places like Altoona, Johnstown or Lancaster, and, and I'm

02:46not sure why we would have any kind of budget cuts that might impact this kinds of a program

02:52or maybe up to 50%. Um, uh, Mr. Heibach, are, you know, are we able to just make that point

02:59to the administration, just how important that is to make these very smart investments, in my

03:04opinion, into these, um, small airports? Cause I mean, ironically, it's not about politics,

03:09but, but the, the, all of those three communities that I referenced all in red counties. So that

03:15to me flying is, should be safer and it's bipartisan. So it's, it's, uh, I honestly, like, I think these

03:23kinds of investments are just smart and that's economic development and that, so, uh, if you

03:29had an address, but that might be possible for those cuts. Uh, yes, Senator Federman, as a fellow

03:34in Pennsylvanian, uh, I share, uh, your, your, uh, interest in, uh, the small and rural airports in,

03:40in Pennsylvania. Um, we in airports do invest, uh, significant, um, or make significant investments

03:47in small airports through our small airport fund and other grant programs. The essential air service,

03:53uh, program is administered by the department of transportation. Uh, and I'm happy to take your

03:59message back to our colleagues. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I, I had the pleasure of meeting with,

04:03uh, the, the head of the Lancaster airport and, and now it's like they, they really want to make

04:08these kinds of updates as upgrades. And I fully support that. Um, I grew up in York, so we know,

04:12I know how close that area, that's an incredible amenity. So for, for me, it's, again, it's not about,

04:17um, it's really just about serving all the Pennsylvanians and have access to, to air travel.

04:23So, but, uh, otherwise, no. Thank you. And I see that back to the chair. Thank you all, both of you.

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