Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) officials are advocating for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reconsider its approach regarding COVID-19 aviation industry guidelines for exposure notification and workplace sanitation.
The world’s largest nongovernmental aviation safety organization recently rejected what it believes to be the FAA’s lack of guidance regarding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 protocols.
The ALPA recently forwarded correspondence to the FAA in the wake of the agency asserting it is not a public health authority and would allow others to issue the COVID-19 guidance. In February 2006, the FAA published a notice in the Federal Register in which it identified itself as a public health authority.
“We agree that the FAA is a public health authority and that it is the FAA’s responsibility under the law to promote the safe operation of civil aircraft,” ALPA President Capt. Joe DePete wrote in a letter to FAA Administrator Steve Dickson. “The FAA must not delegate its authority to airlines and hope that they do the right thing. We are in the middle of a global public-health crisis and the FAA appears to be unwilling or unable to find the fortitude to direct the airlines to take all CDC-recommended steps to protect essential employees and do what needs to be done to keep crews and passengers from getting sick and dying.”
The ALPA maintains pilots are testing positive for COVID-19 at twice the rate other Americans are experiencing, with more than 250 of the organization’s members testing positive for the coronavirus with at least three deaths.