Letter to the Hon. Stephen Dickson, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration - FAA now studying whether to mandate airlines provide more legroom & seat width for flying public; Schumer demands study be comprehensive & strong; jamming people into planes like a can of sardines creates safety & comfort issues

Letter

Dear Administrator Dickson:

In the face of shrinking commercial airplane seat sizes and increasing discomfort of passengers, I am troubled by Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) management of this issue. The FAA is late in issuing minimum seat size regulations and the current testing that is being done is lacking and inadequate. I request that you swiftly take steps to rectify the testing underway and to issue regulations as soon as possible in order to address this important matter for the flying public.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 mandated that within one year, the FAA issue regulations establishing a minimum seat pitch, width, and length that is necessary for the safety of passengers. The one year mandatory deadline passed on October 5, 2019, but your administration has not issued such regulations.

Furthermore, while testing at an FAA facility is underway to study how shrinking seat sizes impacts the ability of passengers to quickly evacuate an aircraft, I am troubled by the inadequate testing procedures that are in place. These tests use only adults between the ages of 18 and 60 and lack inclusion of children, seniors, people with disabilities, and even pets. In short, the testing conducted by the FAA does not represent real world conditions for evacuation of an aircraft.

While it is alarming that one year after the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act, your administration has not been able to issue regulations establishing minimum seat size for safety, it is even more alarming that the FAA is not using the most basic, common-sense real world testing conditions to assess the ability of passengers to evacuate in the event of an emergency.

The FAA must do all that it humanly can to protect the flying public. To that end, I respectfully request that the agency's testing of evacuation procedures include all demographics and real-world conditions found on commercial aircraft, and that it be completed as swiftly as possible in order to issue seat size regulations as per the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff.

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