Loved ones of victims on a quest for answers
Families are in D. C. as they seek meaning
WASHINGTON — Revelations that the captain of Flight 3407 failed three pilot proficiency tests and was involved in extraneous conversation on approach to landing at Buffalo Niagara International Airport are shocking, but just the start of what family members of the crash victims say they expect to begin learning today.
“It is devastating, but we came here feeling that we would hear it was preventable,” Kevin Kuwik said of the Feb. 12 crash that killed his girlfriend, Lorin Maurer. “It hurts to hear, but it is part of the process. We expect there will be more revelations.”
Dozens of the families of Flight 3407 victims have arrived here as the National Transportation Safety Board today begins three days of hearings on the crash that killed all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.
Families were not invited to testify in the proceedings, where the safety board will delve into what effects icing, crew experience and training, fatigue management, cockpit rules and other factors might have had in causing the crash.
Loved ones of the victims are also meeting over the next few days with lawmakers, as well as with staff members from the federal agencies overseeing the aviation industry.
They met Monday with several members of Congress and with representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The meetings generally went well, according to family members, who said FAA officials answered questions about the process the agency follows and expressed remorse over the crash.
“Clearly we have concerns and frustrations [with the FAA], but hopefully we can develop a relationship so that we can reach out and be heard,” Kuwik said.
Family members also reacted Monday to news reports that Capt. Marvin D. Renslow failed three FAA proficiency checks before joining Colgan Airlines in 2005, that Colgan’s training program does not include simulations for stall warnings and that Renslow and his co-pilot violated regulations banning extraneous conversation on approach to landing.
While the revelations stunned some, others said they recognize that the investigation is a lengthy process and that the exact causes of the crash have yet to be determined.
In addition, a representative of the National Disaster Air Alliance, which represents families from other plane crashes, chastised the airline for trying to make the pilot a scapegoat for failed airline policies and practices.
“I think it’s a bad PR for them to try to blame two people who died doing their job,” said Alliance member Gail Dunham. “If the pilot was that incompetent, the airline should not have hired him.”
In addition to attending hearings today, family members plan a brief meeting with the head of the National Transportation Safety Board and a midmorning meeting with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y. Meetings with other elected officials, including other members of New York’s delegation and other Aviation Committee members, are scheduled for later in the week.
The idea is to meet the people who will have some decisionmaking power and to remain part of that process in hopes that the results of the Flight 3407 investigation have more impact than the results of probes from previous crashes.
One of the hardest things to grapple with, Kuwik said, is the feeling that this crash might not have occurred if recommendations from past crash investigations had been implemented.
“Some of them may have something to do with the crash of 3407,” said Karen Eckert, sister of Beverly Eckert, who died on Flight 3407.
The safety board, for example, has recommended against using autopilot in icing conditions, but the FAA rejected the suggestion. Flight 3407 was on autopilot when it began experiencing difficulties.
“There will be multiple issues” ultimately deemed responsible for the crash, said Susan Bourque, also a sister of Beverly Eckert. “It all came together. But as many of us have said to each other, getting back to the icing, if this plane had been flying in June, we think it would have landed successfully.
“We are not aviation experts, but [icing] initiated all the problems that occurred, that came together. It may all come back to that.”
For some of the families of 3407 victims, the initial grief over the sudden loss of their loved ones was followed by a need to find meaning in the tragedy and to try to bring about something positive.
Early on, a Web site, 3407memorial.com, was set up, giving families a place to communicate, share information and mourn. But as time has gone on, the families — some of them frustrated by what they were learning about past crashes — felt a need to do more than express their love and grief with words.
“The first month after the crash, we we all trying to just come together to grieve. But by late March or so, we started talking about having our voices heard,” Kwik said. “. . . Nothing we do will make up for their loss, but we like to feel we can make something positive come out of it.”
Family members spoke with determination.
“The first thing we want to do is find out what happened,” Kuwik said, “and then, whatever comes out of the investigation, we want to make sure is implemented so what happened to us doesn’t happen to other families.”
Bourque said, “Our ultimate goal, aside from learning and listening, is to do whatever we can to hopefully prevent this from happening to anyone else.”
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