Latest News

Join our fight! If you feel that aviation safety in our country can and should be improved, please sign up for our mailing list by entering your email address below. We promise not to share your email address with anyone and will only communicate matters relevant to aviation safety and how you can assist in our cause. Thanks for your support!

Email:

The Families of Flight 3407 plan to complete the journey our loved ones were unable to complete by walking from the accident site to the Buffalo Airport on February 12, 2010. Click here for more details.

PBS Frontline to air documentary entitled "Flying Cheap" on Feb. 9, 2010. Click here for more information.

The Buffalo News has published a detailed review of aviation safety in their four part series entitled "Who's Flying Your Airplane?" Click here for access to the series or click here for full coverage of all Flight 3407-related articles.

Welcome

Welcome to the website created and maintained by the family members of the victims of Flight 3407. Continental Flight 3407 departed Newark airport on Thursday, February 12 en route to Buffalo, New York. Approximately 5 miles from the airport, the airplane began experiencing problems and tragically crashed into the Clarence Center neighborhood just outside of Buffalo. 45 passengers, 4 crew members, 1 off-duty pilot, and 1 person on the ground perished in this horrible accident.

Purpose

Immediately following the accident, family members and close friends of the victims congregated in Buffalo, NY to learn more about what happened onboard the fateful flight. In the weeks following the accident, a bond was formed amongst the family members and we have vowed to do everything in our power to learn the true causes of the accident and prevent future aviation accidents from occurring. None of us wish for another family to go through the pain and suffering we have been through and we are doing everything in our power to promote positive change in the aviation industry. The purpose of this website and our related actions is to bring awareness to the outstanding safety issues yet to be addressed by the FAA and major airlines and to improve overall safety of passengers in the skies.

Accomplishments

In the relatively short amount of time that has passed since this horrible accident, the Families of Flight 3407 have been able to meet with numerous government officials to heighten awareness of aviation safety issues and to ask for assistance in improving the safety of airline passengers across the country. A brief summary of the individuals we have met with include:

  • Offices of 66 US Senators, including meetings with 10 Senators
  • Offices of 18 US Representatives, including meetings with 11 Representatives
  • Hon. Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation
  • Hon. Randy Babbitt, Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration
  • Hon. Deborah Hersman, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board
  • Staff members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
  • Staff members of the House Subcommittee on Aviation

Our ongoing awareness campaign and request for positive changes to aviation safety regulations have helped influence many government initiatives. Since this accident, three Senate hearings and two House of Representatives hearings have been conducted to investigate the current state of aviation safety and opportunities for improvement. Representatives from The Families of Continental Flight 3407, Mike Loftus and Scott Maurer, were invited by Congressional members to testify and participate in three of those hearings.

Our efforts have also led to the passage of H.R. 3371, the ‘Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act’ by the House, and the introduction of four aviation safety bills in the Senate. Additionally, both the Senate and House have included aviation safety provisions in the FAA Reauthorization Bills that they have introduced (refer to the Links page for more detailed information on these bills). And the FAA held only its second-ever, industry-wide Call to Action in June, a safety summit of the airlines and pilots, to determine a plan of action to ensure that the tragedy of Continental Flight 3407 is never repeated.

The Remaining Challenges

Although much has been accomplished, much work still remains. Our group remains focused on these four areas:

1) Legislation requiring that all commercial airline pilots possess an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) license prior to being hired. Currently, a pilot can be hired as a first officer by an airline with a Commercial Pilot License (CPL), with as little as 250 flight hours. Requiring an ATP license would ensure not only additional flying experience (1,500 flight hours), but also would carry greater qualitative requirements for flying in instrument conditions, cross country, and at night, as well as additional check flight and academic testing requirements. It would ensure that passengers flying on regional and major airlines would receive ‘one level of safety’ in terms of pilot qualifications. Please refer to additional support documentation for this proposed legislation on our Links page.

2) The passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act by the Senate, and then approval of a combined bill by both the House and Senate. All of the aviation safety legislation that our group has worked so hard for is attached to this bill, so our fate rests in the hands of Congress, particularly the Senate.

3) The NTSB’s final report with probable cause and safety recommendations for Continental Flight 3407, and the implementation of these recommendations in a timely manner by the FAA and the airlines. Family groups from previous airplane crashes have been extremely frustrated by the FAA’s slow pace to respond to the NTSB recommendations from their accident, with delays in some cases of up to fifteen years. We can only be left to wonder if some of these recommendations from previous accidents, had they been implemented, would have made a difference in preventing our tragedy.

4) Continued oversight of the aviation industry, particularly the FAA’s implementation of aviation safety legislation and the regional airlines’ commitment (or lack of) to ‘putting the best pilots in the cockpit and setting them up for success.’ Unfortunately, our accident has shown us that the aviation industry has been known to forego safety improvements if they come at too great of a cost, so we will remain vigilant to ensure that the conditions that came together to cause this crash are not allowed to repeat themselves.