Pilot error caused 2009 crash ( Buffalo )

CNN ^ | 2/2/2010 | Mike Ahlers

[wyowolf]

Washington (CNN) -- Confronted with signs that his plane was entering an aerodynamic stall, the pilot of Continental Flight 3407 pulled on the plane's control column when he should have pushed -- a simple but inexplicable error that led to the death of 50 people, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday evening. The board's ruling, coming a year after the crash near Buffalo, New York, is stark in its simplicity.

[wyowolf]

Sad...

[101voodoo]

As a pilot I can tell you one of the most difficult things to overcome as a student was the urge to pull BACK on the yoke when you sense the aircraft “falling”

Aiming an aircraft towards the ground to accomplish an end result of avoiding the ground is difficult to get your head around and in moments of high stress instinct will sometimes take over.

The pilots biggest mistake was allowing the aircraft to get ahead of him instead of him staying ahead of the aircraft.

[riri]

Board members said the flight crew did not live up to the professional standards necessary for safe flight.

So we had a pilot thinking with a certain part of his anatomy other than his brain.

And a 24 year old chick as his right hand (wo)man.

It'd be nice if passengers could know this kind of stuff before hand before choosing to get on a flight. Cuz, yeah, I'd not be getting on a plane knowingly with these two at the helm.

[jwparkerjr]

There are several things that a would-be pilot has to learn that fly in the face of instinct. Like when you taxi in a tail dragger, with no brakes or steering other than the rudder. If you're headed for something and want to turn away from it you have to throttle UP! Seems like it would just speed up your collision with the thing you are trying to avoid. But unless you get enough air flowing over the rudder you won't be able to turn. Early on it takes a conscious effort to advance the throttle when you are headed toward the fence!

[Thermalseeker]

Early on it takes a conscious effort to advance the throttle when you are headed toward the fence!

Imagine what it was like in the early days when not only did they not have brakes or steerable tail wheels, but also rotary engines that had no throttle control as we know it. The only way they could control the speed of the rotary engines in those days was by using a blip button to kill the ignition momentarily if less thrust was needed. Otherwise, it was full throttle all the time. This is why in old movies when you see an old biplane the engine sounds like it is starting and stopping (because it is)

[tlb]

>>>And a 24 year old chick as his right hand (wo)man.

Nearly all planes that crash do so with XY chromosomes at the control. If that comforts you any.

[101voodoo]

Although I have never flown a tail dragger what you say makes sense and is actually the same theory of airflow over control surfaces equaling control working in a different situation

[starvosan]

I do not for a second believe the official version. Even a novice pilot would NOT pull back on the yoke after a stall warning sound. Something else caused that plane to crash. What does the FBI report on the crash say?

[MediaMole]

This was a clear-cut case of icing causing a loss of lift and a stall condition on final approach. Two young, inexperienced and apparently tired pilots in bad conditions. They were low and slow with little room for error.

[Kakaze]

This was a clear-cut case of icing causing a loss of lift and a stall condition on final approach. Two young, inexperienced and apparently tired pilots in bad conditions. They were low and slow with little room for error

Icing was my thought too, a lot of young pilots forget, that on a T-Tailed aircraft ice develops 3 times faster on the tail than the wing.

Couple that with a change in configuration at the marker and things can get out of hand very very fast.

[starvosan]

Except the investigators had to admit that ice did not affect the aircraft. It did not affect aircraft landing immediately before and after flt 3407. So forget ice.

And neither the pilot or co-pilot were inexperienced. Capt Renslow had over 5500 flight hours, and the co-pilot had over 1500 flight hours in the Q400. So why did the pilot hold the yoke back until the aircraft stalled?

“That is very unusual behavior, and quite frankly, I can’t explain it,” said Tom Haueter, director of NTSB’s office of aviation safety.
“By all accounts, Captain Renslow and First Officer Shaw were fine people,” Colgan spokesman Joe Williams said in a written statement. “But they knew what to do in the situation they faced that night a year ago, had repeatedly demonstrated they knew what to do, and yet did not do it. We cannot speculate on why they did not use their training in dealing with the situation they faced.”

In other words, they don’t know what caused the plane to crash.

[RobRoy]

There is another problem as demonstrated in this video. And it brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY5KzmCwXmM