Continental crew didn’t have time to warn passengers

The crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407 that crashed near Buffalo's Niagara International Airport on Thursday didn't have time to warn passengers what was about to happen.

Continental crew didn't have time to warn passengers

The crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407 that crashed near Buffalo's Niagara International Airport on Thursday didn't have time to warn passengers what was about to happen.

"It was just a sudden catastrophic event that took place, and 30 seconds later they hit the ground," said Steven Chealander, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

All 49 passengers and crew and one person on the ground were killed in the first fatal U.S. airline disaster in more than two years.

The Bombardier Inc Dash 8 Q400, operated under contract by Pinnacle Airlines Corp's Colgan Air unit for Continental Airlines Inc, went down around 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) northeast of the airport at about 10 pm local time on February 12. The flight originated in Newark, New Jersey.

The NTSB will begin a detailed examination of the "black boxes" recovered from the crash today. The cockpit-voice recorder captures noises and what the pilots said. The flight-data recorder tracks airplane movements and manipulation of flight controls.

Initial evidence shows the plane's de-icing equipment and engines were working and that the so-called stall-warning devices had activated, Chealander said. Such devices warn flight crews that they are about to lose control and crash, he said.

Investigators found the plane pointed away from the airport and in a position that rules out a nosedive, Chealander said. Investigators don't know what caused it to turn around.

Heaters had to be brought in to melt ice that was hampering efforts to recover the bodies from the scene, Chealander said.

Plane was on autopilot
Buffalo: The plane was on autopilot when it went down in icy weather, indicating that the pilot may have violated federal safety recommendations and the airlines' own policy for flying in such conditions. Chealander said yesterday, the company that operated the flight recommends pilots fly manually in icy conditions. "You may be able in a manual mode to sense something sooner than the autopilot can sense it," he said.
The preliminary investigation indicates the autopilot was still on when the plane crashed. That has not been confirmed by information from the plane's flight data recorder. The pilots of Continental Flight 3407 discussed "significant" ice buildup on their wings and windshield just before crashing into a home on Thursday night.u00a0u00a0

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