[ml/nj]

BS. How do they know how much ice had accumulated on the wings? Ice didn't cause it but we don't know what did. (Why do we let bureaucrats do anything?)

ML/NJ

[IFly4Him]

They don't know how much ice, but we can look at other known factors and deduce that there wasn't anything of significance.

1) The clouds were layered that evening. Generally speaking, you need about 3,000 ft cloud thickness to generate ice.

2) The clouds were stratiform and there was no reported precip.

3) Planes were landing on the same approach every few minutes. It takes a lot of ice to bring down an airplane like the Q400 with it's modern construction and anti-ice features. No other aircraft reported anything of significance.

4) If icing had caused the stall, the flight data from the black box would have recorded a higher than normal true airspeed at the time control was lost. I obviously do not have access to the data, but that would be an obvious data point to review.

The data did indicate the yoke was moved "pitch up". Only a pilot can do that. That action would definitely induce a stall if they were already on the brink. It's pretty conclusive IMO...