Announce Opposition to FAA Nominee Bryan Bedford
June 18, 2025, Buffalo, NY — The Families of Flight 3407 announced today that they will meet with Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Wednesday, June 25th to discuss the importance of upholding critical reforms enacted in the aftermath of the tragic 2009 crash of Continental Flight 3407.
At the same time, the group voiced its strong opposition to the nomination of Bryan Bedford to serve as the next Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, citing serious concerns raised during his June 11th confirmation hearing—most notably, his refusal to directly commit to preserving the pilot qualification requirements (ATP certificate), a core component of the 2010 Airline Safety Act passed in response to the crash.
“We were deeply disappointed by what we heard from Mr. Bedford at his confirmation hearing,” said Scott Maurer, who lost his 30-year-old daughter Lorin in the crash. “The fact that Mr. Bedford could not simply commit to keeping this key standard in place sends the wrong message to every American passenger and every family that has ever boarded a domestic airline flight.”
The ATP certificate requires that pilots for commercial airlines log at least 1,500 flight hours in various environmental and aircraft situations before being hired. In 2022, as CEO of Republic Airways, Bedford petitioned the FAA to allow pilots to be hired with only 750 hours under a training exemption proposal which the FAA ultimately rejected.
The Families of Flight 3407 emphasized that their upcoming meeting with Secretary Duffy will be an opportunity to reinforce the life-saving impact of these reforms and to ensure that the Department of Transportation continues to stand firm against efforts to weaken them.
“We look forward to our meeting with Secretary Duffy and are hopeful that he will commit to protecting the reforms that have worked so well,” Maurer continued. “We owe it to our loved ones—and to every passenger on every domestic airline —to keep fighting to ensure that they are not weakened.”