Hearings? Form a task force...

There must be a big hearing coming up...You can always tell when the FAA is about to take a big hit in Congress: it announces a major inspection or a task force. That's the case with the latest from the FAA's new guy, the very capable Randy Babbitt, who came out the day before a series of congressional hearings on commuter airline safety with word that the agency will launch a series of (one guess, no more, ladies and gentlemen) commuter airlines.
The aviation agency will focus on pilot training, and the agency will also call in regionals, pilot groups and majors for a closed-door meeting early next week to seek ways to boost safety immediately. But given the impetus - the nation's worst airline disaster since late 2001, the February crash of a Continental Connection turboprop at Buffalo in February - it's not likely that critics will be satisfied. And North Dakota's Byron Dorgan, who heads the Senate aviation subcommittee, is unlikely to give the regulators a pass. Remember, his state is served almost exclusively by regional carriers.