American, Delta drop out of safety program - News- msnbc.com

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The nation's two largest airlines have dropped out of a federal safety program that was designed to encourage voluntary reporting of pilot errors before they resulted in crashes.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines quit the Aviation Safety Action Program, or ASAP, which allows pilots to admit mistakes without fear of being punished.

The acting chief of the Federal Aviation Administration said it was "disheartening" to see the programs end, which a leading safety expert blamed on lack of trust between labor and management.

American had taken part for 14 years, and its program was used as a model at other carriers in the U.S. and abroad.

The pilots' union at American, the Allied Pilots Association, charged that American was using the program to discipline captains for inadvertent safety lapses, putting their jobs at risk. The union sought language to strengthen job protections for pilots who reported errors.

"We will not accept any process that labels our pilots as reckless, and discipline for inadvertent safety events must stop," union official Kevin Cornwell said at the time.

Tim Wagner, a spokesman for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, said Friday the company preferred not to change provisions of the program but that the union balked and refused to extend the agreement. He said a self-reporting system from NASA is still in place.

Wagner said ASAP doesn't have the day-to-day safety impact of such things as inspections and maintenance, "but it allows us to look at situations that have happened and make changes. We would love to see it renewed."

A similar dispute led Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation's largest carrier, to end its ASAP program in 2006, and subsidiary Comair also recently dropped out. Pilots at Delta and Comair are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association.

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