Airline safety bill OK'd

WNY delegation lauds efforts of families of Flight 3407.

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Members of the Western New York congressional delegation on Friday praised the final passage of sweeping legislation aimed at improving airline safety in the wake of a deadly commuter plane crash in Clarence Center last year.

By a voice vote, the House passed the safety provisions, which were included as part of a Federal Aviation Administration extension bill, late Thursday night. The Senate passed the bill Friday. It now heads to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign the bill by Sunday.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, lauded the efforts of the families of Flight 3407, the group that pushed for improved airline safety regulations ever since the Feb. 12, 2009, crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, which killed all 49 people on board the plane and one person on the ground.

“They have learned to live through their tragedy. But what they have been doing all this time is working for us,” Slaughter said Thursday on the House floor. “They have made sure that none of the rest of us will endure this kind of tragedy. I know how grateful I am, and everybody in America owes them a debt of gratitude.”

In her remarks, Slaughter lashed out against the regional carrier, Colgan Air, that operated the fatal flight.

“No airline should have sent into Buffalo, N.Y., in February, two pilots who didn’t have the foggiest idea how to fly through ice,” Slaughter said. “We found they were extraordinarily exhausted and paid so little that they had to fly to Newark and get their plane and couldn’t even afford a hotel room and one of them slept on the floor to get to Newark. ... How tragic for these families that these were the people in charge of the plane that night.”

The new safety provisions passed by Congress include several recommendations issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, including raising to 1,500 — from 250 — the minimum hours required for pilots to obtain their certification.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., also praised the efforts of the friends and family members who lost loved in the crash.

“It is my sincere hope that these good people who have suffered such sorrow at the loss of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, husbands, wives — that they can return home, their heads held high, knowing that they turned their loss into action, and that their efforts might spare others the same pain that they, themselves, have endured,” Gillibrand said.

The safety measures apply to all airlines and are the first comprehensive attempt in decades to revise rules governing pilots. They would force airlines to hire more experienced pilots, investigate pilots’ previous employment more thoroughly and train them better. The legislation also requires a major overhaul of rules governing pilot work schedules to prevent fatigue.

President Obama is pleased Congress has acted “to ensure that we will use the best available evidence to make our aviation system as safe as possible” and plans to sign the bill into law, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

The impetus for the safety measures was the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407. An NTSB investigation faulted actions by the flight’s pilots and deficiencies in pilot hiring and training by Colgan Air.

All of the past six fatal airline accidents in the U.S. involved regional carriers. Pilot performance was a contributing factor in four of those cases.

Major airlines are increasingly outsourcing short-haul flights to regional carriers, which now account for more than half of all domestic flights.

Members of Congress praised the friends and family members of the victims of Flight 3407, who have lobbied relentlessly over the past 17 months for the safety measures.

“This is a textbook example of a small group of people who, with only right on their side, were able to overcome large and powerful special interests,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

The bill, said Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will make “an extraordinary difference to aviation safety.”

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