It’s been 10 years since Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash landed in upstate New York, changing air travel forever.
The plane left Newark Liberty Airport Feb. 12, 2009, bound for Buffalo, New York, but crashed before it reached its destination. Fifty people were killed when the flight crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York.
The crash forever changed training regulations for airline pilots. Investigators revealed that both the pilot and the co-pilot of Flight 3407 were inadequately trained and overworked.
Previously, pilots and co-pilots needed only 250 hours of flight experience before being allowed to fly. Now they need 1,500.
Before the crash, pilots were only trained to deal with emergency situations in the classroom. Now they are required to complete that training in a flight simulator.
Pilots are now required to have 10 hours of rest, including eight hours of uninterrupted sleep between their shifts. Previously airlines only had to give pilots eight-hour breaks.
About 100 family members of the Colgan Air crash victims fathered around the country to remember the victims at a ceremony. The vigil was held at 9:50 p.m. – the same time that the plane stalled and crash.
A Bloomberg report reveals that out of more than 90 million flight departures in the United States, there has only been one death since the Buffalo crash. A woman aboard a Southwest Airlines flight died in April 2018 after she was sucked outside the plane when one of its engines exploded in midair