Who's Really Flying Your Plane?

The subsequent investigation of the crash revealed a relatively unknown trend at the time: Major airlines have outsourced a large number of their flights to little-known regional airlines. In fact regional airlines account for over half of all scheduled domestic flights in the United States and, according to a PBS Frontline investigation, are responsible for the overwhelming majority of commercial airline accidents in the past decade.

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The regional airlines are not held to the same standards as the major carriers. Mainstream carriers voluntarily, on their own, set their standards, which are significantly above those written decades ago. Meanwhile, many regional carriers are operating with FAA minimum requirements.

An investigation into the crash of Flight 3407 by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), completed in 2010, identified pilot error as the major factor. It was revealed that the first officer on 3407 made less than $16,000 the previous year and the captain had failed five flight tests with Colgan and received inadequate training. The NTSP investigation unearthed a wide range of factors that may have contributed to the tragedy, including training standards and odd sleeping and commuting patterns of the staff.

Just last month, a series of emails came to the public's attention as a result of litigation that several family members have against Colgan. It was discovered that some of the top officials at Colgan did not disclose important facts about the captain of flight 3407 during the NTSB investigation - though, in a letter to three Buffalo-area members of Congress, Pinnacle Airlines Corp., the company that owns Colgan Air, steadfastly denies withholding information.

Travelers were relatively unaware of these outsourced flights and the shockingly low standards for pilots until the tragic events in 2009. Though the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 set out a list of proposed rules and regulations, not one rule has actually been written.

This January, the U.S. Department of Transportation took a step in the right direction by giving airlines 60 days to make sure their Web sites clearly showed any code-sharing arrangements on each segment of a journey. The arrangement now appears on the same screen and next to your itinerary when you buy a ticket.

Code-sharing allows an airline to sell a ticket on a flight that uses its code, but is operated by a different carrier. Previously, the carrier that actually operated your flight was often only found through a hyperlink on many Web sites.

"When passengers buy an airline ticket, they have the right to know which airline will be operating their flight," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement back in January.

"For years we've required airlines to inform consumers about code-sharing arrangements, and we'll be monitoring the industry closely to make sure they comply with the provisions of the new legislation."

While the new mandate is a step in the right direction, the information is often written in small print and easily overlooked.