[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 25 (Thursday, February 11, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                A PLEA TO MY COLLEAGUES ON THE FAA BILL

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                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 11, 2016

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about flight 3407 
that crashed in Buffalo, New York, seven years ago tomorrow. This plane 
crashed in sight of the runway on an icy February night.
  We learned that the pilot and the co-pilot had never been trained or 
flown into any icy situations. The young woman co-pilot had flown the 
night before from Seattle. She was so poorly paid, around $13,000 a 
year, that she could not afford a motel room to sleep overnight. She 
instead, slept on the floor in the pilot's lounge. On the black box, 
before the crash, you could hear them both yawning.
  On that plane were two of the best musicians in the United States, a 
woman who was an expert on Rwanda and the genocide there, and one of 
the top anthropologists. They died because these pilots had neither 
knowledge nor experience to fly in those conditions.
  The families of the people who died on that plane have selflessly 
come to D.C. time and again, working to get regulations passed for 
seven years on how much training the pilot and the co-pilot have to 
have, and to ensure they have enough flying hours between them.
  Now, we're facing an FAA bill with an amendment that would undo those 
safety regulations. I implore my colleagues not to let that amendment 
pass or weaken the regulations that protect the flying public and 
reverse the competency of pilots who hold the lives of those we love in 
their hands.

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