WASHINGTON – President Trump has nominated a regional airline executive with a history of criticizing a key aviation safety regulation to be the new administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, prompting outrage from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Flight 3407 families.
Schumer, in a letter last week to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, asked that Duffy meet with the Flight 3407 families to hear their concerns.
“I am gravely concerned about the nomination of Bryan Bedford to serve as FAA administrator,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote. “Mr. Bedford has been one of the most vocal and persistent advocates of rolling back and circumventing basic air safety standards,” including the “1,500 rule,” which requires new commercial passenger airline pilots to have that many hours of flying experience.
Schumer (copy)
House Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, right, with Erie COunty Executive Marc Poloncarz, has called the nomination of Bryan Bedford as FAA administrator “incredibly dangerous.”
Schumer called Bedford’s nomination “incredibly dangerous.” Meanwhile, Scott Maurer, one of the leading members of the Flight 3407 families, said that if the Senate confirms Bedford to run the FAA, “it’s going to be the fox watching the henhouse.”
The Department of Transportation’s press office failed to return a request for comment. But, upon announcing Bedford’s nomination in March, Trump said on his Truth Social website: “Brian brings over three decades of experience in Aviation and Executive Leadership to this critical position. Bryan will work with our GREAT Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, to strongly reform the Agency, safeguard our exports and ensure the safety of nearly one billion annual passenger movements.”
Bedford’s nomination won quick backing, too, from airline industry groups.
“Mr. Bedford has decades of experience in aviation operations, and he leads with a commitment to safety above all else,” said Nicholas E. Calio, president and CEO of Airlines for America, which represents the nation’s major passenger carriers.
Bedford has served as CEO of Republic Airways, a regional carrier that operates flights on behalf of American Airlines, Delta and United, since 1999.
Such regional operators came under heavy criticism after the February 2009 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 in Clarence, which claimed 50 lives. Colgan Air, a now-defunct regional airline, operated that flight on behalf of Continental, and federal investigators blamed the crash on pilot error.
The Families of Continental Flight 3407 banded together shortly after the crash and, 18 months later, pushed Congress into passing a landmark aviation safety law that improved pilot training and rest requirements while implementing the 1,500-hour rule.
Bedford, however, is a longtime critic of that rule, saying it has contributed to a pilot shortage.
“While hiring a pilot with 1,500 hours of flight time may seem safer than hiring a pilot with only 500 hours of flight time, in fact this merely forces future aviators into a lengthy holding pattern,” Bedford said at a congressional hearing in 2014. “They are well-trained and ready to fly, but are forced to shelve their skills in favor of accumulating arbitrary flight hours in environments that offer little professional enrichment.”
At the time, Bedford urged the FAA to grant flight-hour credit to pilots in structured training programs. Then, in 2022, Republic – with Bedford still at the helm – asked the FAA to allow pilots who have been through its training program to fly with only 750 hours of experience. The agency rejected that request.
“The FAA has determined that the relief requested is not in the public interest and would adversely affect safety,” the agency said at the time.
Given that track record, Bedford is a risky choice to head the FAA, Schumer said in an interview. “Bedford was the guy who tried to hurt us,” Schumer said.
That being the case, “I’m really demanding that Secretary Duffy sit down with the (3407) families,” Schumer added. “They know air safety better than anyone for the years they’ve studied it and protected it, and we need Duffy to commit clearly and publicly, no matter who’s the FAA commissioner, that the 1,500-hour rule and all of the regulations around it stay.”
LOCAL 3407 MEMORIAL GEE
Scott Maurer, who lost his daughter Lorin in the crash of Flight 3407, said that if the Senate confirms Bryan Bedford to run the FAA, “it’s going to be the fox watching the henhouse.”
Meanwhile, Maurer stressed the importance of that meeting, given the families’ concerns about Bedford.
“Given his historical track record, we’re pretty sure we know what he’s going to do, and we’re going to do everything we can to hopefully keep that from happening,” Maurer said.
Bedford’s future, however, depends on the U.S. Senate, which must confirm him. Schumer said he can likely line up all Democratic senators to oppose Bedford’s nomination, but that four Republican senators would also have to vote against him to prevent his confirmation.
Airline groups, however, will likely be making a strong push for Bedford.
“For more than two decades, I have been privileged to see firsthand the visionary leadership Bryan brought as CEO of Republic Airways, where he led the organization through decades of powerful growth and expansion with integrity, ingenuity and a relentless focus on safety,” said Faye Malarkey Black, president and CEO of the Regional Airline Association. “He cultivated a safety culture that permeates every aspect of the airline, where people on the front lines of the airline are empowered, every day, to make the right choice for safety.”
But the nation’s largest airline pilots union – which has long backed the 1,500-hour rule – will be pushing to maintain it as Bedford’s nomination moves through the Senate.
“We have concerns about the nominee’s past efforts to lower pilot training and safety standards, and we look forward to hearing his assurances that he will maintain the current requirements,” said Capt. Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association.
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