Airlines, Pilot | featured news

United Continental has reached a labor-contract agreement with the unions representing the 11,000 pilots of the carrier, which is still working out the kinks of its 2010 merger.

On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said that pilots on American Airlines flights will be officially allowed to use iPads instead of paper flight manuals in the cockpit, just a few feet from the most critical avionics on a plane, even during takeoff and landing.

Pilots wrestled with the controls of an Air France airliner for more than four minutes before it plunged into the Atlantic with its nose up, killing all 228 people on board, French investigators said on Friday.

The Transportation Security Administration will let uniformed airline pilots skip the body scans and pat-downs at airport checkpoints.

The major U.S. airline industry association criticized efforts to revamp pilot-fatigue rules, calling the government's proposals overly restrictive, politically motivated and scientifically flawed.

US Airways said Monday it will add 500 flight attendants and pilots next year mostly to cover planned retirements and attrition.

A pilot who refused to submit to a full-body scan or the alternative pat down going through airport security said the procedures violate his rights.

Some airline pilots would be required to get nine hours of rest between one work day and the next, an hour more than now, under proposed changes in federal rules.

<

A flight attendant with a pilot's license ditched her normal duties and stepped in for a sick copilot of an American Airlines flight before the plane landed in Chicago, Illinois, airline officials said.

Airlines should create and enforce policies to ensure that pilots focus on flying their planes safely instead of being distracted by laptop computers and other devices, the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.