Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Congressmembers Brian Higgins (NY-26) and Nick Langworthy (NY-23) are joining forces in an attempt to fight the latest attempt to circumvent flight safety standards that were put in place following the crash of Flight 3407 in February of 2009.
Higgins and Langworthy were joined in a press conference at the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport on Monday by members of the Families of Flight 3407 to speak out against these attempts by regional air carriers to work around essential training hours for pilots.
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"There is an effort to undermine the very provisions that these families and all of us fought for over the past 14 years," Congressman Higgins said on Monday. "We have to make sure that that doesn't happen. I will be before the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday to ensure that there are no efforts by regional carriers to water down these provisions that are all about safety for the flying public."
In a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg, both Congressmen are asking the Department to deny a request by SkyWest Airlines to re-classify operations, which the leaders say is "yet another attempt by regional carriers to undermine the lifesaving First Officer Qualification rules."
"We have new safety regulations that are unprecedented, for one reason: Because of all of them [the families], individually and collectively. One statistic to please keep in mind: 99.8% reduction in commercial aviation fatalities," Higgins pointed out. "A 99.8% reduction in commercial aviation fatalities, because of these extraordinary individuals behind us."
Higgins and Langworthy argue the company’s request "means they will be able to operate at a substantially lower level of safety, using substantially less trained first officer pilots."
"When you book that plane for work, or to take your family on a vacation, you want to have 100% confidence that the airline and the pilot has full professionalism. The simple fact of the matter is that since we instituted the 1,500-hour training rules, there's not been a single American commercial airline crash. That's proof positive that it work, and we want to keep it that way. We want to keep everyone feeling safe on America's airlines," said Congressman Langworthy on Monday. "These challenges that the airline industry are facing are real, and they've gotten a lot of assistance from the federal government in the last several years in relief, to help get over these challenges that every industry is facing. But loosening these life-saving qualifications, that's not the place to cut corners."
Following the crash of Flight 3407 on Feb. 12, 2009, Congress and the families of Flight 3407 helped to deliver major safety reforms in the Federal Aviation Administration Act of 2010. These included measures addressing pilot fatigue, consumer transparency, the pilot records database, and pilot training requirements, including the 1,500-hour rule.
The Congressmembers say the SkyWest application to conduct scheduled passenger operations as a commuter air carrier is designed to bypass pilot training standards, including the 1,500-hour rule. It is a move that will not only impact this carrier, but "will create a precedent for rural air service to operate at a lower safety threshold, making Americans less safe."
"Lives are at stake, and must always be the driving force behind policy decisions," Rep. Langworthy said. "The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee holding the these hearings this week about this important re-authorization, they're going to hear from Western New York, from Congressman Higgins and myself, and many others, as these families get to work. There's a big push from these regional carriers to allow flight simulation training to count towards these hours, but it's just not the same as real, in the air flights, where you know your safety and the safety of others on board is dependent on the decisions that you make. There is no way to simulate how your mind and your body will respond to in the air challenges."
The letter comes as the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has its next hearing on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Authorization scheduled for Wednesday, April 19. The CEO of the Regional Airlines Association is scheduled to testify. Also appearing as a witness is the President of the Air Line Pilots Association, who previously testified in support of preserving flight safety standards put in place through the 2010 FAA Reauthorization and visited Western New York earlier this year on the anniversary of the Flight 3407 tragedy.
"Both the House and the Senate wrote the sweeping legislative changes needed to raise the bar of airline safety for the regional airlines that have kept all of us safe. But in spite of a stellar safety record over the last 14 years, there's still a movement underfoot by some regional airlines paying their lobbyists millions to look for loopholes, look for exceptions so that they don't have to comply with this safety bar," said Karen Eckert, sister of Beverly Ecker, who died on Flight 3407. "They keep looking for ways to get less experienced pilots in the cockpit. Why? They're not pushing safety. They want to add extra flights, and raise their bottom line. The latest attempt is just an end run around clear Congressional intent. It was the intent of the Airline Safety Act not to go under it or through it just to do it."
Some of the Flight 3407 families plan to attend the upcoming hearing in Washington, D.C. It will be another trip to the nation's capital for these family members in order to try and keep other traveling Americans safe in the airways.
"We've been accused of having emotional responses. Am I emotional? Believe it. Of course, I'm emotional. I lost my daughter. These folks have been accused. 'You're just an emotional response,' that's what it was," said John Kausner, father of Ellyce Kausner who was killed on Flight 3407. "You all remember 9/11? We all had an emotional response, and these two ladies here lost their brother-in-law on 9/11. You know what his wife did, their sister? She started working in D.C., so we need to change things. Oh, she was emotional, guaranteed. Bev was emotional, but she said, 'We need to change things.' So they worked to change things, and today, we have hardened cockpits for pilots. Today, you can't get on a plane with a wine opener or a small knife, and you know what? We haven't had a hijacking sense. The emotional, I'll call it passionate, response worked. Same with us. Were we emotional? Yes, we were emotional. But we looked and said, with our passion with our loss, said, 'What can we do to fix things?' And we fixed them, and we haven't had an airline crash since."
The last FAA Re-authorization in 2018 extended FAA’s funding and authorities through Fiscal Year 2023. Congress will continue to debate measures included in FAA Re-authorization this year.