BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As part of the president's directive to scale back regulations, the Federal Aviation Administration's Rulemaking Advisory Committee has recommended more than 50 changes to safety rules. Among the most prominent is a new report which recommends rolling back pilot qualification rules.
Sen. Charles Schumer helped lead the effort to pass legislation requiring first officers to reach 1,500 training hours before obtaining a license to fly commercial passenger airliners. He vows to do everything he can to keep it.
"This is life and death. This is one of those issues where we have proof almost that when you don't do this, death results," said Schumer, D-New York.
The law came in the wake of the 2009 plane crash of Flight 3407 in Western New York. Since then, regional airlines have been trying to roll back the rules.
"I can't imagine why you would change that rule. It's working so effectively and try and water it down," said John Kausner, whose daughter died on board Flight 3407.
John and Marilyn Kausner have helped lead a group of family members who have spent countless hours in Washington D.C.
"We'll fight as long as we have breath. If we have to go to Washington every month, that's what we're going to do," Marilyn Kausner said. "We will not give up."
The industry said there's a pilot shortage, but Schumer said the issue is not excessive training but what the airlines pay. He said rolling back standards would be foolish and potential lead to more situations like 3407.
"If the pilot had been well-trained, those 50 people would be alive," Schumer said. "Those hundreds of families wouldn't have the whole in their heart that they live with."