WASHINGTON — Three hundred and fifty-five days after Continental Connection Flight

3407 plummeted into a home in Clarence Center, the families of the 50 victims and the rest of

the world will learn what most likely caused the crash — and what can be done to prevent

such a tragedy from happening again.

The National Transportation Safety Board is meeting this morning to consider the final

report in its crash investigation and the safety recommendations resulting from it.

BuffaloNews.com Live: This morning's national TV morning shows focused on Flight 3407 report

While such safety board "sunshine meetings" culminate every major federal accident

investigation, members of the group Families of Continental Flight 3407 are looking at today's

meeting as nothing but another important step in their long effort to make America's skies

safer.

"It will be good to officially bring closure to the accident investigation phase so that

all can move forward to address the issues," said Scott Maurer, whose daughter, Lorin, was

killed in the crash. "We hope we will be more successful than previous groups to push our

accident recommendation through."

There is a history of survivors fighting for new safety measures following a crash —

and the Federal Aviation Administration ignoring the safety board's recommendations. For

example, the families of the victims of a 1994 crash in Roselawn, Ind., and the safety board

pressed hard for federal regulations on turboprop planes in icing conditions. Sixteen years

later, the FAA still has not adopted those recommendations. But Randy Babbitt, who took over

as FAA administrator last year, has said he will either adopt safety board recommendations or

explain why his agency won't.

Even before the safety board released its recommendations in the Clarence crash, the FAA

took two initiatives that could address some of the concerns, centering on regional carriers

such as Colgan Air, which operated Flight 3407 for Continental.

The agency last year released a proposal to bolster pilot training by increasing the time

that pilots spend in simulators, and plans to update that proposal this spring. Last week,

Babbitt said the agency is in the beginning stages of developing another set of more detailed

rules for pilot training.

Beyond that, the agency will release a proposed rule this spring aimed at limiting the

number of hours pilots can work. That proposal is aimed at preventing pilot fatigue.

Both the pilot-training and fatigue initiatives have drawn some criticism.

The families of the Flight 3407 victims say the training rules do not go far enough, and

they are pushing Congress to require that co-pilots have the same 1,500 hours of flying

experience as pilots. They cite the fact that federal investigators already have shown that

the crew of Flight 3407 made several errors that played a role in the crash, such as letting

the plane get too slow and then doing precisely the wrong things once the plane started to

stall.

Lawmakers have questioned Babbitt on whether the fatigue rules should address pilot

commuting, given that the co-pilot on Flight 3407 commuted to her shift in Newark, N.J., from

her home near Seattle on red-eye flights the night before the fatal flight.

Given such disagreements, the Flight 3407 families say they expect to have to keep up their

fight long beyond today's meeting.

"Based on the track record of the FAA, our efforts will not end here," said Susan Bourque,

who lost a sister, 9/11 activist Beverly Eckert, in the crash. "I hope that the findings of

the NTSB will again focus a spotlight on the underside of commercial aviation today. The

public needs to be made aware of these by any means possible."

The safety board hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. and will be webcast; a link is available at

www.buffalonews.com.

More than 50 family members of the victims plan to attend the meeting in the safety board's

conference center, while others will watch at the Millennium Hotel in Cheektowaga.

The meeting is expected to last all day, with the board considering both the report's

findings and safety recommendations and then voting on each.

A synopsis of the day's actions will be available afterward, but the full accident report

will not be available for several weeks, said Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the safety

board.

Despite the families' concerns that the FAA may stonewall the board's recommendations,

safety experts say the response could be better this time.

For one thing, the House already has passed aggressive safety legislation — including

the 1,500-hour requirement for co-pilots — although the bill now seems stalled in the

Senate.

"There's a good deal of movement coming by virtue of the actions from the Colgan crash,"

said Mark V. Rosenker, who was chairman of the safety board at the time of the crash.

Babbitt, meanwhile, notes that the aviation industry has responded to the FAA's "Call to

Action," implementing voluntary safety measures on its own. For example, Continental Airlines

now meets regularly with its regional carriers to share best practices.

"This recent accident put a little bright light on the fact that we found that some

carriers use best practices," Babbitt said. "The positive thing we've done is to put a very

bright light on what those best practices were."

The FAA seemed to send a signal to the regional airlines Monday when it fined American

Eagle nearly $2.5 million for operating 154 flights in 2008 without ensuring that the baggage

weight was properly calculated. A false weight, the FAA said, could lead pilots to incorrectly

set controls. "The traveling public has to be confident that airlines are following important

safety rules," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. "When they are not operating to the

highest levels of safety, they are subject to stiff fines."

Some aviation experts expect the report to be a prod for Congress and the FAA to make big

changes.

"Because of the political interest it has generated, I think this tragedy is going to be a

watershed event in aviation safety," said Capt. John M. Cox of Safety Operating Systems, a

Washington aviation consultancy.

Rosenker said, "I think the industry ... is getting serious about upgrading its safety

standards where they just don't look at the minimum levels, but go beyond it.

"I'm optimistic — but call me in six months."

Tom Precious of The News Albany Bureau contributed to this report.