Earlier today, President Obama was in Buffalo, where he met with families of Flight 3407 victims and spoke at metal manufacturer Industrial Support, discussing the economy, "We can now say without a shadow of a doubt: We are headed in the right direction," but added, "If you're still looking for a job, it's still a recession... No matter what the economists say, it's not a real recovery until people can feel it in their own lives." (Yes, they do.) He was told by a woman at Duff's Wings, "You're a hottie with a smokin' little body." more ›

In the wake of the NTSB's hearings about the fatal Flight 3407 that crashed in Buffalo, more attention is being drawn on low pilot pay and their commutes. Flight 3407's captain commuted from Tampa to Newark while the co-pilot (who only made $16,000/year) commuted from Seattle. One young pilot tells the NY Times he makes $25,000/year as a co-pilot and is $100,000 in debt from training. One senior pilot said he was lucky to get 4.5 hours of sleep at a hotel, because others can't afford hotel rooms or even "crash pads" listed on Craigslist. A former regional pilot (now a safety consultant) said, "I know a guy who bought a car that barely ran and parked it in the employee lot at his base airport, and slept in his car six or seven times a month." And NY-based (but lives in Boston) pilot Alex LaPointe spoke to the Daily News, "Probably at least once a trip you find yourself nodding off just 'cause there's some days you don't get enough sleep...If you spend an extra three or four hours commuting on top of a 14-hour duty day, you can easily go 18, 20 hours of being up. It cuts into your rest. It certainly fatigues you." more ›

Colgan Air officials said that they had changed hiring requirement for pilots, raising the number of hours flown from 600 to 1000 hours. The move is a response to the fatal Continental Flight 3407 plane crash—operated by Colgan— from Newark to Buffalo, which killed the 49 passengers and crew members plus one person on the ground. The flight's pilot, Marvin Renslow, only had 625 hours of flight time; he also failed the FAA proficiency test three times. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board began its three days of meetings examining Continental Flight 3407's fatal crash outside Buffalo this past February. Transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder reveal that Captain Marvin Renslow said, "Jesus Christ!" and swore as he scrambled to right the plane and that co-pilot Rebecca Shaw screamed right before the plane crashed. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board revealed a number of details about the Continental Express flight to Buffalo that crashed on Thursday night. more ›

The Buffalo News reports, "Forensic anthropologists and aviation experts are walking grids in Clarence Center, where Continental Express Flight 3407 went down, trying to determine what caused the craft to take a horrific vertical dive." They will mark every spot "where human remains, pieces of the aircraft and personal effects are recovered." The flight's 49 passengers and crew were killed, as was the owner of the home where the plane crashed. According to the NTSB, recovery of the bodies may take several days; here is a partial list of victims. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board retrieved the flight data recorders—aka the "black boxes"—from Continental Flight 3407, which crashed just outside of Buffalo in Clarence Center, NY last night. All 49 passengers and crew members were killed, as was one person on the ground, whose home was leveled by the commuter plane (an apparently new Bombardier Q400). Governor Paterson visited the crash site and said, "We're all connected, and we find out how connected we are on days like this." This was the first commercial American airline accident with fatalities since August 2006. more ›