Alaska Aviation Infrastructure and Funding Challenges -- Meeting Future Safety, Capital, and Technological Needs
July 5, 2006
09:30 AM
09:30 AM
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has announced a Full Committee aviation field hearing scheduled for Wednesday, July 5, 2005, at 9:30 a.m. in the Loussac Library in Anchorage, Alaska. The hearing will review Alaska’s needs for infrastructure, funding, and technology to meet future safety regulations. Senator Stevens will chair this hearing.
Majority Statement
-
Ted Stevens
SenatorMajority Statement
Ted Stevens
Alaska Field Hearing Opening Statement – July 5, 2006Stevens: We have been focused in our Committee on communication policy. We’re going to get back to the aviation area here I hope. We’ve got a lot to discuss. We all know that Alaska depends on aviation more than any other state and we have a terrible history in aviation safety. A few years ago when we started this program, and Ms. Blakey will testify about that today, we had serious concerns about the future of safety with so many pilots having accidents and so many deaths in our state. Innovation has come about mostly by necessity and I’m really pleased that the FAA and the state and the various interests in Alaska joined together sometime early in the 1990s. Capstone remains a model for the government and for industry. In the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta alone, some testing has been introduced, and the accident rate has been reduced by about 60 percent. I don’t want to steal your statement Ms. Blakey, but I’m very proud of what’s been done here. This afternoon we’ll meet with the people involved in the Medallion program. That too is a voluntary program of our operators so it has a history here, a recent history of success, and we want to hear from Ms. Blakey and others on the second panel on what we can do to improve on that. Ms. Blakely, the Administrator has been here several times now and has participated in the Capstone review and also the Medallion program and we’re grateful to you for the time that you’ve spent on Alaska safety programs and we’re pleased to have your statement this morning.
Testimony
-
The Honorable Marion Blakey
AdministratorFederal Aviation AdministrationDownload Testimony (21.61 KB)
Witness Panel 2
-
Mr. John Torgerson
Deputy Commissioner of AviationAlaska Department of Transportation and Public FacilitiesDownload Testimony (314.67 KB) -
Mr. Tom George
Alaska Regional RepresentativeAircraft Owners and Pilots AssociationDownload Testimony (184.18 KB) -
Mr. Morton V. Plumb Jr.
DirectorTed Stevens International AirportDownload Testimony (395.84 KB) -
Mr. Bob Hajdukovich
Chief Operating OfficerFrontier Flying ServiceDownload Testimony (103.72 KB)
