WASHINGTON — After three days of testimony about pilot fatigue, failed flying tests and cockpit warning systems, the uncle of a victim of crashed Flight 3407 summed it up: “No one had to die. The behavior was beyond unprofessional.”
“This didn’t have to happen. That’s what came out of this,” said Terry Stelley, uncle of Coleman Mellett, 34, a passenger on the doomed flight. Stelley watched a webcast of the National Transportation Safety Board’s three-day hearing, which concluded Thursday, from Cheektowaga, N.Y.
The board hasn’t reached a formal conclusion about what caused the worst U.S. air crash in more than seven years, but the hearing exposed a slew of safety concerns involving the pilot training, hiring, pay and fatigue.
Continental Connection Flight 3407 ‘s captain, Marvin Renslow, and co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, apparently didn’t realize they were traveling at dangerously low speeds as the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400, a twin-engine turboprop, neared Buffalo Niagara International Airport on the night of Feb. 12.
The plane experienced an aerodynamic stall and plunged into a house below, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground.
