Piedmont Pilots Lack Key Safety Training

Unfamiliarity with stick pusher shocks Flight 3407 victims' families, aviation experts

Nearly a year after the pilot of Continental Connection Flight 3407 tried to override the safety device that was supposed to help rescue the tumbling plane, pilots at another regional airline flying into Buffalo say they have never been trained in how that safety device works.

Even though investigators revealed months ago that Capt. Marvin Renslow, Flight 3407's pilot, inappropriately pulled back on the controls after the "stick pusher" activated, two Piedmont Airlines pilots told The Buffalo News they have received no stick-pusher training.

"It'd be nice to know when that thing activates that I've had some sort of experience with it," one Piedmont pilot told The Buffalo News on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for US Airways, which owns Piedmont, confirmed that Piedmont's main training center in Charlotte, N.C., does not include hands-on stick-pusher instruction for the more than 300 pilots undergoing once-a-year, mandatory recurrent training.

"The FAA does not compel us to have the training. We feel it should be there," said Morgan Durrant, a US Airways spokesman, adding that the airline is now looking into upgrading its Charlotte simulator to offer the training for the stick pusher.

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