Using "better more safe programming languages" generally gets you [some greater level of] memory safety and thread safety. Developing for safety-critical embedded systems with a single thread and no dynamic memory allocation renders those benefits irrelevant. There are still concerns around type safety, but full compiler warnings and strict code review, both of which we need regardless, handle that.
We also need to be able to certify not only that our source code matches our requirements, but that our binaries match our source code. Compiling with --c99 --debug -O0 gives us a highly visible link between each line of source code that goes into the compiler and the assembly instructions that come out of the compiler. We know exactly what the computer is actually doing, not just what we think we've told it to do. The various "better" languages all get "better" via more powerful and clever (read: complex and opaque) compilers, which is a no-go in our field.
With little benefit and impermissible cost to the alternatives, and the breadth and depth and longevity of the resources and support available for it, there's no sane choice for us but C.