Colgan Air releases response to NTSB

BUFFALO, N.Y. (RELEASE) - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing today is an important milestone in understanding what happened a year ago when Flight 3407 crashed outside Buffalo, New York, but it does not diminish the tragedy in which 50 people lost their lives.

We want to reiterate our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the accident, including five of our employees.

We want to make clear again that our pilots are highly trained to handle all situations they may encounter. Like all Colgan pilots, Captain Renslow and First Officer Shaw had thorough initial and recurrent training on how to recognize an impending stall situation and recover from it.

By all accounts, Captain Renslow and First Officer Shaw were fine people. But they knew what to do in the situation they faced that night a year ago, had repeatedly demonstrated they knew what to do, and yet did not do it. We cannot speculate on why they did not use their training in dealing with the situation they faced.

Since the accident, we examined every aspect of our operations to make sure that everything that could be done was being done. As a result, and as we have already publicly said, we have taken a number of important and specific steps to further enhance all of our training and hiring programs.

>>>Click here to view the presentations made at the NTSB hearing

We want to make clear that we have repeatedly proven our commitment to safety. With the acquisition of Colgan Air in 2007, we immediately began to invest millions of dollars in upgrades to crew training, operations, leadership and equipment, and we continually work to enhance all of our programs because we are totally committed to safety. There can be no greater priority.

Prior to the accident, we had also proactively begun to adopt a full range of voluntary safety initiatives recommended by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and did so before any calls were made for such programs to be mandatory. With these investments, we have established the same or better capabilities as every other major carrier in the United States.

We are proud of the skill and professionalism of our flight crews and of all our 5,000 employees and of the systemic culture of safety throughout our organization.

We will review closely the findings and recommendations of the NTSB, and we will work closely with our industry colleagues and regulators to reinforce this primary industry objective.