SCHUMER ANNOUNCES - AFTER MONTHS OF WORKING DIRECTLY WITH FLIGHT 3407 FAMILIES – SENATE HAS SUCCESFULLY PROTECTED VITAL 1,500 HOUR RULE PILOT TRAINING STANDARDS AND AVIATION SAFETY LAWS IN SENATE FAA MARKUP

Following The Tragic 2009 Plane Crash, Schumer Fought Alongside Families Of Flight 3407 Victims To Create Critical Flight Safety Regulations, Including Requirement That Pilots Log 1,500 Flight Hours In Order To Receive Certificate, Among Other Lifesaving Reforms

Schumer Has Been Working In Lockstep With The Flight 3407 Families, Helping Elevate Their Voices, And Ensuring The Reauthorization Of The FAA In The Senate Protects Legacy Of The 15 Year Long Fight –Senator Will Continue Fight As Bill Progresses Through Congress

Schumer: As We Approach The Anniversary Of Flight 3407, Senate Has Moved To Ensure We Keep Our Skies Safe And The Legislation These Families Has Inspired Will Live On  

A long-time, tireless advocate of air safety, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced that by working alongside the Flight 3407 families, he has successfully protected the essential aviation safety regulations put in place after the tragic crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in the markup of the Senate Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) re-authorization bill. Schumer worked for months in lockstep with the families to help elevate their voices, ensuring no legislative language that would water down the 1,500-hour pilot training requirement or weaken other critical aviation safety reforms was included or would threaten the safety of our skies and tarnish the important legacy of the Flight 3407 families’ advocacy.

“As we approach the fifteenth anniversary of the tragic crash in Western NY, the Senate has taken decisive action to ensure the safety of our skies and protect the legacy of the vital aviation safety reforms that were created by the families of Flight 3407. For months the families and I stayed in consistent communication, working to ensure that the Senate FAA markup not only preserved the legacy, but also enhanced many other critical areas, of safety for air travel. Once again despite their best efforts, special interests have lost and the lifesaving reforms inspired by the Flight 3407 carry on,” said Senator Schumer. “Since these safety laws were enacted, not a single major U.S. airline has had a fatal crash, and I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these families to have helped create these aviation reforms and protect them once again. Now the fight continues as we advance to pass a final FAA reauthorization, and rest assured I will fight to ensure these reforms remain untouched and the safety laws which carry with them the memory of those lost in Flight 3407 are advanced in a final bill.”

Schumer worked relentlessly over the recent months in lock step with the Flight 3407 families, along with allies such as Senator Duckworth, to ensure any actions taken by the Senate preserved the legacy of the legislation the families created and advanced the critical safety reforms they continue to fight for.  Schumer worked tirelessly to ensure no changes were made to the 1500 hour rule at the committee level, personally speaking to Senators about the importance of preserving the rule. The senator also personally wrote to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker to ensure that none of the new provisions in the bill would roll back the hard fought aviation safety provisions that the Flight 3407 families helped create. A breakdown of the additional safety and aviation provisions included in the Senate bill which unanimously passed out of Committee earlier today can be found here.

Schumer has been a long-time, relentless advocate for air safety standards following the tragic crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. In February 2009, the tragic crash of Flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York claimed 50 lives and alerted the nation to the shortfalls in our aviation safety system, particularly at the regional airline level. In the wake of the tragedy, Schumer worked with the families who lost loved ones in the crash, to pass the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010. This landmark aviation safety legislation addressed many of the factors contributing to the increasing safety gap between regional and mainline carriers by requiring the FAA to develop regulations to improve safety, including enhanced entry-level pilot training and qualification standards, pilot fatigue rules, airline pilot training and safety management programs, and the creation of an electronic Pilot Record Database.

Notably, the legislation included a mandate that first officers – also known as co-pilots – hold an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, which requires that the pilot log 1,500 flight hours, and the advocacy of the families has led to many other laws including  regulations to combat pilot fatigue, the establishment of the electronic Pilot Records Database, and more. Since the establishment of the 1,500 hour rule and other regulations that were secured through the work of the Flight 3407 families and Schumer, there have been no airline passenger fatalities on a U.S. domestic carrier, far surpassing the previous longest period without a fatal commercial crash.

In October 2010, when an FAA commissioned panel proposed a training requirement of merely 500 hours, Schumer personally wrote to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt urging him to reject a formal advisory group's recommendation to scale back the 1,500 hour training requirement, which he successfully guided into law the previous summer. For years after, Schumer worked together to protect the essential aviation safety regulations put in place after the disastrous crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in Senate FAA re-authorization bills. In June 2022, Republic Airways attempted to roll back the safety regulations fought for by the Flight 3407 families. Schumer immediately wrote a letter to FAA Acting Administrator Billy Nolen and demanded that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reject Republic Airways’ request, along with any other request, to scale back the flight-safety regulations. In September 2022, the FAA officially denied the request by Republic Airways.

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