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Congress started contemplating vital aviation laws on Tuesday within the aftermath of current shut calls involving airline and cargo jets at airports in New York and Texas.

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Lawmakers celebrated the small variety of deaths on airline flights in the USA since a 2009 crash that killed 50 individuals, however they famous the current scary incidents.

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“It reveals that even following the most secure decade in our historical past, our aviation system is clearly in want of some pressing consideration,” mentioned Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the Home Transportation Committee.

Graves’ committee held its first listening to on a must-pass invoice to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration by Sept. 30. The FAA regulates airways and plane producers and manages the nation’s airspace.

The listening to highlighted points starting from FAA know-how — which broke down final month, snarling U.S. air journey for a day — to the dimensions of airline seats.

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FAA laws often focuses on security, and that’s more likely to be the case once more this 12 months. Shopper teams are also pushing Congress to incorporate various passenger-friendly provisions which might be opposed by the airline business. Among the proposals would require airways to:

— Rapidly put passengers whose flights are canceled or considerably delayed on one other flight — even when which means paying to place them on a competing airline.

— Enhance compensation and reimbursement of bills for passengers affected by delays and cancellations.

— Let dad and mom and minor kids sit collectively with out paying further seat-assignment charges; the teams say a 2016 directive to the Transportation Division has been held up.

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— Embody a seat, boarding cross, carry-on bag, private merchandise and water within the value of all tickets.

It’s not clear that something Congress would possibly do would have prevented shut calls between planes final month at New York’s JFK Airport, when an American Airways aircraft taxied throughout a runway getting used for takeoff by a Delta Air Traces jet, and final weekend in Austin, Texas, when air visitors controllers cleared a FedEx cargo aircraft to land on a runway from which a Southwest Airways jet was taking off. In each instances, fast reactions by air visitors controllers or pilots averted catastrophe.

Lawmakers pressed an FAA official and different witnesses on know-how upgrades, the necessity for faster evacuations throughout emergencies, and minimal expertise for airline pilots — that was raised from 250 hours of flying time to 1,500 hours after the 2009 crash.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., requested whether or not extra exemptions to the 1,500-hour rule are wanted so airways have sufficient pilots to serve smaller communities.

No, mentioned Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Affiliation, in defending present requirements for pilots.

“We’re within the most secure interval in aviation historical past proper now, and plenty of that’s due to these very guidelines,” he mentioned.