Crash families channel grief to outlobby airlines on rules

[WASHINGTON] One was a basketball coach. Another sold food packaging. Two were sisters-in-law of an insurance executive who died in the World Trade Center on Sept 11, 2001.

With no Washington experience or deep-pocketed backers, these family members of victims of a 2009 plane crash near Buffalo, New York, channelled their grief and rage for four years to win US rules reducing pilot fatigue and improving training and qualifications. They outmanoeuvred industry opponents spending millions on lobbyists.

The rules, the last of which was announced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Nov 5, will cost airlines US$7 billion over 10 years to add training, hire more pilots and adjust flight schedules, according to government estimates.