Flight 3407 Families Blame Fatal Cargo Crash on FAA Delay

WASHINGTON – The federal government's long delay in implementing a pilot record database led to a fatal cargo plane crash in Texas last year, the Families of Continental Flight 3407 said Wednesday, a day after safety officials questioned the hiring of the doomed flight's copilot.

The families, who won the passage of comprehensive aviation safety legislation after the 2009 crash in Clarence, demanded that a pilot records database be included in that law because the pilot of Flight 3407 got hired despite a shoddy training record.

That being the case, family members said they were aghast that the database still had not been implemented in time to prevent the crash of an Atlas Air cargo plane in Texas in February 2019. The pilot, copilot and a third pilot who was a passenger all died in that crash.

"You have two fatal crashes where the bottom line was that a pilot was in the cockpit who should not have been, had the airline fully vetted their entire training history," said Scott Maurer of Palmetto, Fla., who lost his daughter Lorin in the Flight 3407 crash. "Congress unanimously called for this database to rectify that problem, and it is inexcusable that 10 years later, not only is it still not completed, but not having it in operation has led to another fatal crash."

The Flight 3407 families spoke out after the National Transportation Safety Board blamed the Texas crash on pilot error, noting that the copilot would not have been hired if Atlas Air had seen his poor flight record.

"The first officer in this accident deliberately concealed his history of performance deficiencies, which limited Atlas Air’s ability to fully evaluate his aptitude and competency as a pilot,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “Therefore, today we are recommending that the pilot records database include all background information necessary for a complete evaluation of a pilot’s competency and proficiency.”

That's what was called for in that 2010 aviation safety legislation, but the Federal Aviation Administration didn't devise a test version of the database until 2017. Technical problems delayed the effort two more years, but the FAA finally delivered a proposal for the database last August.

An FAA spokesman said the agency expects to publish the final rule outlining and implementing the pilot record database in January 2021.

Given all the delays, though, the Flight 3407 families and their chief advocate in Congress – Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer – continue to pressure the FAA to act.

"Shame on all of us if we allow this mistake to result in a third highly preventable crash," said Karen Eckert of Williamsville, who lost her sister, 9/11 activist Beverly Eckert, in the crash.

Schumer, who sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and FAA Administrator Steven Dickson about the database on Wednesday, was outraged to hear the NTSB's finding in the Atlas Air crash.

"I'm going to put as much heat as I can on the FAA, the NTSB and DOT to implement this database immediately," Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. "Look what happened."

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