Letter to Mr. Sean Menke, President and C.E.O., Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. and Mr. George Casey, President and G.M., Colgan Air, Inc.

Letter

Dear Mr. Menke and Mr. Casey:

We write to express our strong concern regarding recently released correspondence between Colgan Air senior safety officials that questioned the ability of the Captain of Continental Connection Flight 3407 to operate the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400, the model of the plane that crashed February 12, 2009 outside of Clarence Center, NY.

We understand that your airline was designated as a party to the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) investigation process. As you know, the facts and information provided during the investigation becomes the basis for NTSB's accident report and ultimate findings of the probable and contributing causes and safety recommendations. It is the responsibility of each participating party in the investigative process to provide all documentation that yields evidence to that end.

It is our understanding that the correspondence in question was not provided to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators during the Flight 3407 investigation. In light of this, we request that you explain your participation in the NTSB investigative process, what criteria you used to determine what information to disclose to the NTSB during the investigation, and why these emails were not included in this disclosure. Furthermore, we request that you provide us with information on your company's screening and selection process for pilots to be upgraded; as the emails expressed significant concern for Captain Renslow's readiness to upgrade, and yet he was allowed to transition to the Q400 a month later.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

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