EAST AURORA, N.Y. — It's been a long road for the Flight 3407 families who've been pushing for reform in the aviation industry after the horrific plane crash took the lives of 50 people in 2009. 

What You Need To Know

  • Flight 3407 crashed in Clarence Center in 2009, killing 50 people 

  • Office of Management and Budget has finalized the rule to establish a long-awaited pilot record database

  • By June 2024, all air carriers are expected to enter all relevant pilot records in the database

Beverly Eckert lost her husband on 9/11. The loss prompted her to take action and push for legislation to help ensure the terrorist attacks don't happen again. Years later, Eckert was on Colgan Air Flight 3407 when it crashed in Clarence Center killing 50 people. 

"Beverly was an inspiration to us," said Susan Bourque, Beverly's sister.

"When she died in the flight, we took our example and inspiration from her and when we saw things that were wrong and needed to be changed, we couldn't just sit back." 

Since the 3407 crash in 2009, Susan along with other families who lost a loved one that day have fought to make the skies safer. They took to Washington in hopes of pushing for changes in the airline industry. Their hard work paid off when the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act passed in 2010, which put in place things like new training requirements for pilots. But there's been a piece of the legislation that has taken years to be implemented — a pilot records database. 

"We're hoping again that this is going to prevent anyone from hiring a pilot who isn't really pilot material," Bourque said. 

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Brian Higgins and Congressman Tom Reed announced Wednesday the U.S. Office of Management and Budget finalized the rule to establish a pilot records database. Once the rule is published next month and final approvals are granted, the database can be created. Air carriers have to start entering pilot records into the database within a year of the rule publication and by June 2024 all air carriers are expected to have entered all relevant pilot records into the database. 

"This was the final hurdle," Bourque said. 

Bourque didn't know it would take more than a decade to get to this point. She describes the journey as not being easy and sometimes exhausting but she knew she had to keep going. 

"We've often said as a family group, every one of the people who were on that plane was what motivated all of us to do what we did and we knew they were behind us every step of the way," she said. 

Pilot error was determined to be the cause of the crash in Flight 3407.