Sen. Boxer gets help from ‘Sully’ Sullenberger in effort to require more rest for pilots

Article written by: SARAH D. WIRE, Los Angeles Times

Flanked by passenger plane and cargo plane pilots, including Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Tuesday urged her colleagues to set the same rest standards for pilots of both types of planes.

Prompted by Boxer-backed legislation, the Department of Transportation moved in 2009 to limit passenger plane pilots to either eight or nine hours in the air, depending on the start time, and require at least 10 hours of rest time before they fly again. But, cargo plane pilots were exempted from the rule and can fly up to 16 hours a day.

“They share the same skies, the planes [are] the same size, they fly over the same homes, so this makes absolutely no sense,” Boxer said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

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