House Passes Airline Safety Bill

By Mark Scott

Buffalo, NY – The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that improves airline safety in the wake of last February's crash of Flight 3407 in Clarence.

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The vote was 409 to 11. All three House members from our region pushed for its passage. They said it comes too late to help the 50 victims of the Clarence crash. But Democrat Louise Slaughter says it was clear something had to be done.

The bill would require that newly hired airline pilots have a minimum 15-hundred hours of flight time. Republican Congressman Chris Lee, who lives just a couple of miles from the crash scene, said the bill would also improve training so that pilots are accustomed to dealing with the kind of stall that doomed Flight 3407. Lee says these are meaningful reforms.

Congressman Brian Higgins says he's disappointed the bill was watered down so that academic class-time could go toward the 15-hundred hour flight time requirement. He says he'll look to close that loophole as the bill makes its way through the Senate and then the reconciliation process.