Practice Violated Company Policy For Icing Conditions

A National Transportation Safety Board official confirmed Sunday that downed Continental Express flight 3407 was being flown on autopilot in apparent icing conditions up to the final moments preceding the crash.

In conjunction with FAA recommendations, NTSB spokesman Steve Chealander said Colgan Air, the plane's operator, recommends that pilots manually fly during all icing conditions... and requires them to do so when there's evidence of severe icing.

"You may be able in a manual mode to sense something sooner than the autopilot can sense it," Chealander told the Associated Press, emphasizing the need to hand-fly the airplane to better feel how it's really flying when conditions are critical.

An autopilot will trim out an aircraft, within its capabilities, to compensate for changing conditions -- including airflow disturbances caused by icing -- without the flight crew necessarily becoming aware of any abnormalities. Preliminary information retrieved from the flight data recorder indicates the aircraft was on autopilot until the aircraft's stick pusher activated, in order to keep the plane from stalling.

Other information about the crash also suggests the plane may have stalled, even going into a flat spin prior to impact. Popular conjecture that icing was a major factor in the crash would seem to support the theory, but at this point is still speculation.

As ANN reported, the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 twin-engine turboprop airplane went down at approximately 10:15 pm (EST) Thursday, February 12, crashing into a house during an instrument approach to Buffalo International Airport (BUF).

Flight 3407 impacted a residential area about 4.4 miles short of the runway at BUF, in what investigators have described as a nearly flat attitude with little forward motion. Radar returns indicate the aircraft fell from 1,800' MSL to 1,000' within five seconds, at which time the aircraft disappeared from radar.

The last hit plotted on the aircraft's flight data recorder showed the Q400 at 900' MSL, with the aircraft descending at 100 knots in a right bank, nose-down attitude. The accident site is approximately 650' MSL.

All aboard the aircraft -- 44 passengers, two pilots, two flight attendants, and one off-duty pilot -- lost their lives. There was one ground fatality, a person inside the home impacted by the plane.

ANN will continue to provide updates on the NTSB investigation into the crash of flight 3407 as information is released.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov