The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
June 4, 2009

Inspector: Aviation Officials Ignored Warnings on Plane Model in Buffalo Crash
------------------------------------------------------------------------------



And a federal inspector has revealed aviation officials ignored his
warnings about a twin-engine aircraft model more than a year before one
flown by Colgan Air crashed near Buffalo in February. The inspector,
Christopher Monteleon, told the New York Times he found pilots had flown
the plane faster than manufacturer specifications allowed. Monteleon
says Colgan Air refused to report the breaches and have the plane
inspected for damage. He says he was then suspended overseeing sections
of Colgan Air’s operations after he reported his concerns to Federation
Aviation Administration superiors. Fifty people were killed in the crash
of Continental Flight 3407 on February 12th. The victims included Alison
Des Forges, one of the world’s foremost experts on Rwanda, and Beverly
Eckert, who had become an advocate for 9/11 families after losing her
husband in the attacks on the Twin Towers.



.