Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer couldn’t make it to Monday afternoon’s ceremony at the Flight 3407 memorial in Clarence, but on the 15th anniversary of the plane crash that claimed the lives of 50 people, the senator delivered good news to the families who lost loved ones that day.
“The 3407 law is not in any jeopardy at all” as Congress completes work on legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for five years, Schumer told the Families of Continental Flight 3407 via Zoom on Monday morning.
In other words, that pending legislation will continue to call on new pilots to get 1,500 hours of flight experience before joining a commercial passenger airline. The law will continue to require that pilots get the training and rest that the Flight 3407 crew didn’t get before crashing their plane into a home. And the legislation will continue to give airlines access to pilot records before they hire a pilot like the captain of Flight 3407, who had failed several test flights but got hired anyway.
The so-called “1,500-hour rule” had appeared to be in grave jeopardy last year, as a key House committee chairman proposed weakening it and several senators hinted at doing the same. But then Rep. Nick Langworthy, a Republican who represents Clarence, teamed with then-Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, to defeat the effort. Meanwhile, Schumer, a New York Democrat, served notice in the Senate that he would not accept any changes to the rule.
And as a result, the online meeting between the senator and several dozen members of the families group marked “both a day of sadness and a day of celebration,” Schumer said.
The current FAA bill expires March 8, and Schumer said its comprehensive replacement will be passed into law by that date or soon thereafter. A brief extension of the current law is possible if Congress misses that March 8 deadline.
The House and…
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