BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Light a candle or curse the darkness.

Those are the choices U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said family members had after losing loved ones on Feb. 12, 2009 to the Flight 3407 crash. 

"In their grief, they came together," Schumer said. "They organized. They raised their voices."

On Monday, they met by Zoom with Schumer to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy. The same group has met in person and traveled to Washington together numerous times over 15 years.

"Working with the families has been one of the most satisfying and inspirational things that I have done in my entire career in Congress," Schumer said.

Together, he said they worked to make America's skies safer, pushing for numerous changes, including more rest and training requirements for pilots.

"These families didn't have campaign contributions, deep pockets, superPACS like the lobbyists, trips for people, all they had was their convictions and their passions, but the system worked," Schumer said.

The families have had to continue traveling to the Capitol as the airline industry has repeatedly asked Congress to roll back requirements. Congress is currently negotiating a Federal Aviation Administration re-authorization bill Schumer said should protect them for another five years.

"Now the House and Senate will probably come together on a joint bill but because both the House and Senate have our language, the language that we prize, in tact, there will not be any kind of formidable dilution."

The anniversary does highlight a new mounting adversary for the families: time.

"A big problem is there's so many new faces in Congress. Every two years, the House turns over and they don't know or they don't remember but actually, I think a lot of them don't even know about our crash. They don't know about the airline safety bill of 2010 that we fought so hard for," said Karen Eckert, whose sister Beverly died in the crash.

Ken Mellet, whose son, Coleman, also was on the plane, noted the group isn't getting any younger.

"So we'll have to have a good succession plan if you will," he said.

Schumer said he expects to continue to be around and he and the families will continue to put forth the same effort and passion to keep the law in tact.

"We will keep our skies safe. We will keep people living. We will continue together to light that candle," he said.