WASHINGTON — The name “Continental” appeared on the fuselage of the plane that crashed Feb. 12 in Clarence — but it has yet to appear on the witness list of any of the three congressional hearings into the crash.

And the families of the victims of the crash, which claimed 50 lives, wonder why.

“I’m very upset about it,” Scott Maurer, who lost his daughter Lorin in the crash, said after the Senate completed its second hearing on the matter Wednesday.

“The one thing I wanted to have the opportunity to get on the record is that my daughter bought her ticket from Continental Airlines,” said Maurer, who testified at the hearing. “Where are they? Where are they in terms of responsibility and accountability relative to this whole process?”

Major airlines declined invitations to testify at Wednesday’s hearing, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N. D., chairman of the Senate Aviation Committee.

“We invited some carriers to testify at this hearing,” Dorgan said after the hearing. While Colgan — the Continental subcontractor that managed Flight 3407 — did not refuse to testify, “the network carriers especially did not want to come to a hearing.”

But Dorgan said he will call another hearing because he believes that the major airlines — which outsource less lucrative flights to the regionals to cut costs — need to be questioned about those relationships.

Julie King, a spokesman for Continental, would not give a reason why Continental had not testified at any of the three hearings.

Instead, she released a statement saying: “Continental attended the hearings and participated in the FAA’s call to action on airline safety. We strongly support the Regional Airline Association and the FAA’s efforts to enhance safety standards and look forward to working with the government and our regional partners on these important initiatives.”

To Kevin Kuwik, who was Lorin Maurer’s boyfriend, Continental’s absence on Wednesday was part of something larger.

“There’s been a well-coordinated effort on the part of Continental to distance themselves from this,” Kuwik said.

Without Continental or Colgan on the witness list, Wednesday’s hearing proceeded in the abstract, with senators from both parties repeating their calls for improved safety at the regional carriers — and legislation to require it.

Dorgan and Sen. Jim De- Mint of South Carolina, the subcommittee’s top Republican, said they would work together on the bill.

Two of the subcommittee’s members, meanwhile, introduced their own bill, which would put into effect several key National Transportation Safety Board recommendations on aviation safety, such as toughening standards for flying in icing conditions.

That bill also would force a more thorough review of pilot records before they are hired and mandate random inspections at flight schools and airlines to make sure training programs are adequate.

“This legislation will hold their feet to fire, implementing several critical NTSB recommendations that have been languishing for decades and putting in place a more robust inspection process to ensure these new safety standards are being followed,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who introduced the bill with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.