BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I would like to start by saying how much I admire the family members of the victims of Colgan Air Flight 3407. They are an amazing group of people. They have advocated tirelessly for a year, making numerous trips to Capitol Hill, all in honor of the beloved loved ones who tragically lost their lives on a Buffalo-bound flight from Newark airport.
They have done this with intelligence, with focus, and, given their overwhelming grief--at least as far as I witnessed--no anger, which was amazing to me. I am sure when they go home at night there is a hole in their
hearts, and it would be quite human for many of them to be angry, but they have channeled all of that into an amazingly well-focused attempt that now is on the edge of success: to make our commuter flights safer.
We all remember the night over a year ago now when flight 3407 crashed in Clarence, NY, and claimed 50 lives. It is a tragic reminder that our Nation's aviation industry is not immune to tragic accidents. Last month the NTSB issued its final conclusion on the cause of the flight failure. The conclusion, though not surprising, based on the reports we have heard for almost a year now, is still heartbreaking.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of the accident was ``the captain's inappropriate response to the activation of the stick shaker, which led to an aerodynamic stall from which the plane did not recover.''
That is a heart-wrenching conclusion to hear because it means the accident was entirely avoidable.
The Senate Commerce Committee has included numerous important provisions, safety provisions, in the FAA bill. I am especially grateful to all the members of the committee, particularly the chair, Senator Rockefeller, and the subcommittee chair, Senator Dorgan, for helping us obtain an amendment that I authored that will require all flight crewmembers to have more flying experience before they can be hired by an airline such as Colgan Air. The copilot can currently be hired by a regional carrier with as little as 250 flight hours. That is unacceptable.
The amendment will require the FAA to require that copilots have at least 800 hours of flying experience, and that experience will have to be performed in adverse flying conditions like those that flight 3407 met over a year ago on a cold, icy night outside of Buffalo.
Senator Dorgan, as I mentioned, was instrumental in helping to make the safety goals of flight 3407 family members a reality. I thank him and Senator Rockefeller and their staffs for their hard work and leadership, not only on the crewmembers' experience but on the FAA bill as a whole. I would also like to thank all the cosponsors of the original bill for their support--Senators Gillibrand, Lieberman, Leahy, Casey, Collins, Snowe, Kerry, Wyden, Scott Brown, Risch, Burris, and Merkley.
We firmly believe everyone flying a plane, both pilot and copilot, should have proper training and experience to handle adverse flying conditions.
NTSB concluded that the pilot and copilot's poor training was evident from the start of the flight when they incorrectly entered airspeeds in the aircraft's computer system. When the Q400 airspeed dipped to a dangerously low level, their reactions were of shock and confusion, not of problem solving. When the stick-pusher activated so the pilot could coax the aircraft out of a stall, he pulled back instead of pushing forward. His copilot did not recognize or correct any of his mistakes.
It is unacceptable that a passenger on a regional carrier should fly in less capable hands than a passenger on a larger commercial carrier, where hiring standards are considerably higher. That is why passage of the FAA bill is of utmost importance in the Senate. We need to bring all commercial air travel to the same level of safety.
I have said this before. It bears repeating. The families of flight 3407's victims have been almost saintly, and I do not say it lightly. They have taken this tragedy and turned it into this moment, a moment where we are on the verge of making critical reforms in airline safety that are long overdue.
If we pass this bill, we will make changes in airline safety that will impact the country for decades to come. The journey that these families have traveled has been too long and too hard to stop now.
In conclusion, I can never say enough about how humbled I am by the work of all flight 3407 family members. It is a tribute to their loved ones' lives that they continue to come to Washington to advocate for aviation safety, and I am honored to help in their cause.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT