Ice Ruled Out as Culprit In Feb. Plane Crash (Buffalo)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Investigators examining multiple plane crashes this year have their hands full, but today they announced that ice was not likely the cause of last month's fatal plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., despite early media reports identifying ice as a potential culprit.

In reducing the emphasis on icing as a major cause of the crash, investigators are increasingly looking at what role the pilot may have played in the accident. New flight data recorder information out today shows the controls of the plane were pulled back, which led to the loss of aerodynamics.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would continue to look at the pilot's experience and training in connection with the Feb. 12 crash that killed 50 people.

The NTSB said that while there was some ice present, "the airplane continued to respond as expected to flight control inputs throughout the accident flight."

The safety board added that "Preliminary airplane performance modeling and simulation efforts indicate that icing had a minimal impact on the stall speed of the airplane."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=7169084&page=1

[VeraAgnes]

1. I get a feeling that this "changing story, changed incident findings"

is going to amazingly clear the airline of any fault.

[Dr.Phool]

5. If it was ice, it would clear the airline.

[bdab1973]

7. How can they change the findings if they are still investigating? Isn't that the point?

I've always said the most likely culprit for this accident was the crew got inattentive and dropped the airspeed from their crosscheck, the airplane got slow, and it stalled at low altitude while IMC. That's a major killer for pilots, and has been for many years (and will continue to be). The ice, if anything, only contributed to the situation (by possibly raising the stall speed slightly). But I doubted that the ice was causal.

[VeraAgnes]

8. From day one; ice was the problem.........

now, in this poor ecomomy.....I just sense this story is going to be stained by corporate dishonesty for the sake of money....It just does not past the smell test now.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. fishy?

[PassingFair]

3. Thank GAWD he's been cleared!

He's had a rough ENOUGH life....

[Number_Six]

4. So?

So, what caused the stall in the first place? Aircraft overloaded? Birdpoop dried on the wings upper surfaces? Poor aircraft design?

Methinks someone's attempting to whitewash this entire deal; ice on wing surfaces increases the stall speed significantly, but to admit that would mean the FAA would have to rewrite a few rules, and the next time it snows, sleets....nobody gets to go up.

I smell a rat.

[bdab1973]

6. You asked "what caused the stall in the first place"...

The pilot not setting the correct power for the given situation...it's a common scenario...gear down, flaps down, configure for landing...forget to push the power up to compensate for the extra drag....stall

[VeraAgnes]

9. I too sense there is

a rat in the pack.

[SpartanDem]

10. Does everything

having to be a freaking conspiracy theory? I swear I'd make a killing selling tin foil hats in this place.

[PfcHammer]

11. Pilots weren't exactly packing tons of hours in the plane