00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 27                                                                                           
01 Requesting the Federal Aviation Administration to grant exemptions from the                                             
02 "commuter rule" in order to maintain a high level of air safety and air                                                 
03 transportation service in rural Alaska.                                                                                 
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05  WHEREAS the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposes to make aircraft with                                       
06 10 or more passenger seats and all turbojet aircraft in scheduled passenger service in the state                        
07 subject to the "commuter rule"; and                                                                                     
08  WHEREAS the "commuter rule" imposes additional operational, certification, and                                         
09 management requirements on aircraft operators in the state and additional equipment and                                 
10 performance requirements for aircraft in the state; and                                                                 
11  WHEREAS the "commuter rule" is supposed to improve aviation safety in the state;                                       
12 and                                                                                                                     
13  WHEREAS the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in its 1995 report on                                          
14 aviation safety in Alaska neither recommended that aviation safety in the state would be                                

01 enhanced if all operators of smaller aircraft were subject to regulations designed for large                            
02 aircraft nor even mentioned the "commuter rule"; and                                                                    
03  WHEREAS the NTSB has recommended that the FAA and the National Weather                                                 
04 Service provide weather observation services at more Alaska airports to enhance aviation                                
05 safety; and                                                                                                             
06  WHEREAS the NTSB has noted that the number of weather observer stations in                                             
07 Alaska has not increased since 1980, contrary to recommendations otherwise; and                                         
08  WHEREAS improved weather observation services and reporting would improve                                              
09 aviation safety in Alaska more than would imposition of the "commuter rule" on small                                    
10 aircraft in the state; and                                                                                              
11  WHEREAS, of the Alaska operators to which this new rule will apply, those operators                                    
12 operating in rural areas have chosen to avoid the "commuter rule" by either removing seats                              
13 from aircraft in order to be under the rule's threshold or disposing of their larger aircraft                           
14 entirely; and                                                                                                           
15  WHEREAS operators of 10- to 19-seat, twin-engine, turbo-propeller aircraft have a                                      
16 better safety record than operators of smaller aircraft; and                                                            
17  WHEREAS the communities of rural Alaska rely heavily upon air transportation                                           
18 services for movement of people and goods; and                                                                          
19  WHEREAS the "commuter rule" will not benefit communities in rural areas of the                                         
20 state; and                                                                                                              
21  WHEREAS the Congress has authorized the FAA to exempt small air carriers in                                            
22 Alaska from provisions of the "commuter rule";                                                                          
23  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the Federal                                     
24 Aviation Administration to either allow affected air carriers to continue to operate in specific                        
25 rural Alaska locations under the operating rules of Federal Aviation Regulation Part 135 or                             
26 expeditiously grant specific exemptions from the "commuter rule" to individual operators who                            
27 operate in rural Alaska.                                                                                                
28  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Rodney E. Slater, Secretary,                                  
29 U. S. Department of Transportation; the Honorable Barry L. Valentine, Acting Administrator,                             
30 Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation; and to the Honorable Ted                            
31 Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young,                                  

01 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.