Continental Connection/Colgan Q400 crashes in Buffalo, NY

[Hugh Jarse]

It never ceases to amaze me that the media are so quick to lay the blame at the feet of the pilot, when quite clearly the airline was at fault for not providing adequate training and/or not taking the "apparent" deficient pilot off line until such time as he was proficient, had he failed a check.

This is typical of the media today. They must find somebody to blame, rather than find out the real facts.

It makes me want to puke...

[D Chan]

your 'bold' should be on the *somebody* instead of the must. The easiest target are the crew who didn't survive - they can't defend themselves

[Greg McDonald]

More:

Just seconds before the worst US air crash in more than seven years, the pilot exclaimed "Jesus Christ" and moments later his co-pilot screamed as Flight 3407 plunged to the ground.

A cockpit voice recorder transcript released on Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board shows that only minutes before the February 12 crash on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in upstate New York Captain Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw chatted about her career and shared their fear of flying in icy weather.

Moments later the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier, a twin-engine turboprop, experienced an aerodynamic stall and plunged into a house, killing all 49 people aboard and one man on the ground.

The transcript was released as the safety board opened a three-day public hearing on Tuesday into the accident. The board was expected to focus heavily on pilot training and fatigue.

As the Dash-8 approached Buffalo on a wintry night, Shaw and Renslow remarked to each other - less than seven minutes before the crash - about how much ice had formed on their wings.

"It's lots of ice," Shaw said.

"Oh yeah that's the most I've seen, most ice I've seen on the leading edges in a long time, in a while anyway I should say," Renslow replied.

Renslow then remarked that he'd flown about 625 hours in the region before he was hired for this job by Colgan Air.

Shaw replied, "I really wouldn't mind going through a winter in the Northeast before I have to upgrade to captain. ... I've never seen icing conditions. I've never deiced. I've never seen any. I've never experienced any of that. I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know I'dve freaked out. I'dve have like seen this much ice and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we were going to crash.' "

"I would've been fine," Renslow replied. "I would have survived it. There wasn't, we never had to make decisions that I wouldn't have been able to make but ... now I'm more comfortable."

The crew then lowers the landing gear and adjusts the flaps, but at 10:16.26 pm there's a sound similar to movement of the flap handle and Shaw says, "Uhhh".

Less than a second later, there are sounds similar to the stick shaker - a warning transmitted through the control stick that the aircraft is nearing a stall. These last for 6.7 seconds. Less than a second later, a horn sounds signalling the autopilot disconnecting and that horn continues until the end of the recording.

At 10:16.34.8, Renslow says, "Jesus Christ."

Shaw says she put the flaps up and asked if she should put the landing gear up. Renslow replies: "Gear up, oh (expletive)."

As noise in the cockpit increases, Renslow adds: "We're down."

There's a thump.

Shaw: "We (sound of scream)."

And the transcript ends.

The board also released documents showing that safety investigators were told by one training instructor that Renslow "was slow learning" the Dash 8 but his abilities "picked up at the end." The training instructor said Renslow struggled to learn the Dash 8's flight management system, a critical computer.

[NickN]

Pretty harrowing stuff......

Sounds like the pilots were a little complacent and not fully aware of the danger they were in. Not saying that was their fault, as other have mentioned insufficient training may be an issue.