Nearly a year after the pilot of Continental Connection Flight 3407 tried to override the

safety device that was supposed to help rescue the tumbling plane, pilots at another regional

airline flying into Buffalo say they have never been trained in how that safety device works.

Even though investigators revealed months ago that Capt. Marvin Renslow, Flight 3407's

pilot, inappropriately pulled back on the controls after the "stick pusher" activated, two

Piedmont Airlines pilots told The Buffalo News they have received no stick-pusher training.

"It'd be nice to know when that thing activates that I've had some sort of experience with

it," one Piedmont pilot told The Buffalo News on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for US Airways, which owns Piedmont, confirmed that Piedmont's main training

center in Charlotte, N.C., does not include hands-on stick-pusher instruction for the more

than 300 pilots undergoing once-a-year, mandatory recurrent training.

"The FAA does not compel us to have the training. We feel it should be there," said Morgan

Durrant, a US Airways spokesman, adding that the airline is now looking into upgrading its

Charlotte simulator to offer the training for the stick pusher.

Renslow didn't have hands-on stick-pusher training in the plane he was flying, either, and

federal safety officials have questioned whether that could have been one of the factors

leading to the crash, which claimed 50 lives.

More details about Flight 3407 are sure to emerge Tuesday, when federal investigators

release their final report on the accident.

Still, a great deal already has been learned about Colgan Air, the regional airline that

operated Flight 3407, along with the crew and the flight and the crash's ramifications for

aviation safety, particularly on regional airlines.

Colgan started giving its pilots stick-pusher training in a simulator after the crash

— but the new information from the Piedmont pilots shows that at least one regional

airline is still allowing its pilots to fly without training in one of the life-or-death

devices on their plane.

"I think that's terrible," said Mike Loftus, a former Continental pilot who lost his

daughter, Maddie, in the Clarence crash last Feb. 12. "It's an accident waiting to happen."

No one can blame the crash of Flight 3407 solely on the handling of the stick pusher, given

that investigators also said the crew — which may have been fatigued — let the

plane get too slow and mishandled the positioning of the plane's flaps.

Nevertheless, investigators have devoted a great deal of attention to the stick pusher, a

safety device that automatically activates when the plane experiences an aerodynamic stall

— when it gets so slow that the wings or tail no longer keep the plane flying.

When that happens, the stick pusher pushes the plane's nose downward so that it can gain

speed and start flying again.

Aviation experts said that sudden uncontrolled movement — and the view of the

fast-approaching ground out the cockpit window — can be a shock to a pilot unfamiliar

with the stick pusher.

And when the stick pusher activated on Flight 3407, Renslow did the wrong thing.

"There was force exerted on the wheel which countered what was supposed to be done," said

Robert L. Sumwalt, a National Transportation Safety Board member, at the May hearings in the

Colgan crash.

What's more, pilots at Colgan told The News in December that they had been taught to

respond to aerodynamic stalls in the wrong way. They were taught to maintain altitude even

though aviation experts say pilots should lower the nose of a stalling plane to gain speed and

regain control, which is precisely what the stick pusher is supposed to automatically do.

Safety board members and witnesses discussed stick-pusher training at length at the NTSB

hearings in May.

Asked if pilots should receive simulator training in the stick pusher, Robert K. Dismukes,

chief scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, said: "Absolutely. Just a few exposures

would make it somewhat less astonishing when it happens."

That kind of training is not routinely happening at Piedmont, a US Airways subsidiary that

flies turboprops throughout the Northeast, including some flights between Buffalo and New

York's LaGuardia International Airport.

New Piedmont pilots and those being upgraded to different planes in the past year began

going to facilities in Toronto or Seattle with stick-pusher training, said Durrant, who also

said there is stick-pusher information contained in pilot training manuals and in classroom

sessions.

But Piedmont pilots strongly disputed those claims.

For one thing, the airline has not been hiring pilots during the recession.

And for another, the pilots said any reference to the stick pusher in any manuals is almost

useless, since it includes no information on how the devices actually work or how a pilot

should react if the safety feature suddenly engages.

The Piedmont pilots blamed the lack of stick-pusher training on cost considerations and a

coziness between the carrier and the Federal Aviation Administration, which does not require

the training.

"It's the classic story of the FAA treating the airlines like customers," said one Piedmont

pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of getting fired.

Told that another regional was still not doing stick-pusher training, FAA Administrator

Randy Babbitt said other airlines were considering adding such training — but he

downplayed the need for it.

"Remember the key component we're training for is to avoid the stall," Babbitt said. "You

never want the situation to get that far. You may want to demonstrate what the airplane can

do, but the training is to never get to the stall."

Nevertheless, other aviation experts were shocked that Piedmont pilots still had not been

trained in how to use the stick pusher.

"It is critical, if a piece of equipment like that is installed, that the pilots understand

why it's there and how it operates," said Capt. Rory Kay, executive safety chairman for the

Air Line Pilots Association.

"I fail to understand how the FAA could not require a training program to not include a

comprehensive explanation of and demonstration of the stick pusher," Kay added.

One Piedmont pilot said the FAA should require the stick pushers to be turned off until

pilots are trained.

"You get guys who say I'm not going to let the plane get to that point. But the guys in the

Colgan crash got to that point and didn't know what to do," the pilot added.