Continental Airlines Flight 3407

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Continental Airlines Flight 3407
Continental Connection Bombardier Q400.jpg

An identical machine of the type DHC-8-400
Accident summary
Accident type Stall on approach for landing
place Clarence Center, New York , United States
43 ° 0 '41.8 "  N , 78 ° 38' 20.5"  W Coordinates: 43 ° 0 '41.8 "  N , 78 ° 38' 20.5"  W.
date February 12, 2009
Fatalities 49
Survivors 0
Fatalities on the ground 1
Injured on the ground 4th
Aircraft
Aircraft type De Havilland DHC-8
operator Colgan Air
Mark N200WQ
Departure airport Newark Liberty International Airport
Destination airport Buffalo Niagara International Airport
Passengers 44 + 1 off-duty pilot
crew 4th
Lists of aviation accidents

On the flight 3407 of Colgan Air (carried out under the brand name Continental Connection for Continental Airlines ) crashed on 12 February 2009, a De Havilland DHC-8 from Newark Liberty International Airport Coming on the approach to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Clarence Center due to a Pilot error. All 49 people on board and one person on the ground were killed in the crash.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident is a De Havilland DHC-8-400 with 74 seats and the aircraft registration number N200WQ . The twin-engine turboprop aircraft belonged to Colgan Air and was also operated by this airline. The aircraft was equipped with a de-icing system. It was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in April 2008 and entered service that same month.

The Q400 was involved in 13 incidents prior to the disaster , but the crash of Flight 3407 was the first incident of this type with fatalities. The crash was also the first flight accident, were killed in the passengers of the airline Colgan Air, since it had been founded in 1991 - in August 2003, however, the two crew members of a Colgan Air plane were killed when their plane at Manassas , Virginia accident . The only incident involving a Colgan Air passenger flight occurred at LaGuardia Airport when another aircraft collided with a Colgan Air aircraft on the apron , slightly injuring one crew member.

Flight history

FAA ILS / LOC approach plan for runway 23 at Buffalo Niagara International Airport (KBUF). The aircraft crashed near the Locator Outer Marker (LOM) about five nautical miles from the threshold of runway 23.

The flight was operated by the regional airline Colgan Air as part of a code share with Continental Airlines . Colgan Air Flight 3407 was operated as Continental Air Flight 3407 under the Continental Connection brand. The plane took off from Newark Airport at 9:20 p.m. EST on February 12 and headed for Buffalo. At around 10:11 p.m. local time (3:11 a.m. UTC on February 13), air traffic control had the last radio contact with the aircraft crew. Shortly thereafter, the plane crashed into a residential building in the village of Clarence Center northeast of Buffalo , about 10 km before reaching runway 23 of the Buffalo airport.

The pilot who was piloting the plane at the time of the accident, flight captain Marvin Renslow, had been flying for Colgan Air since 2005 and had a flying experience of 3379 hours. The first officer, Rebecca Lynne Shaw, had worked for the airline since January 2008 and had a flying experience of 2244 hours.

Bottom view of the type Q400, the long, narrow wings clearly visible

The ILS approach to runway 23 was cleared for the aircraft when it disappeared from the radar screen . The last unofficial radar position was recorded at 10:11 p.m. local time. At the time of the crash, there was light snowfall, fog and a wind speed of 27 km / h. Two other planes reported icing around the same time. The last radio contact with the aircraft was three nautical miles northeast of the KLUMP radio beacon when First Officer Shaw confirmed a routine air traffic control instruction to switch to the tower's radio frequency . Before the accident, the aircraft crew did not issue an air emergency declaration . After various attempts to establish radiotelephone contact with the crew, air traffic control asked the crews of the Delta 1998 and US Airways 1452 flights to establish visual contact with the missing aircraft; the Delta crew reported that they could not see the Colgan Air plane.

crash

The aircraft crashed into a residential building on Long Street in Clarence Center, about five nautical miles from the runway threshold and directly under the approach path , with the aircraft's nose pointing in the opposite direction to the original flight direction. The fire caused by the crash destroyed the house and most of the aircraft.

The parcels in the area are only 18.3 m wide and the plane crashing directly on the house destroyed it completely, the surrounding houses were damaged remarkably little. The local fire station is not far from the crash site, so that the emergency services were quickly on site. Because of the intense fire, twelve neighboring houses were evacuated.

Victim

President Barack Obama with Beverly Eckert a week before the crash

The number of victims is 50. It is made up of the two pilots , two flight attendants , 44 passengers and an airline pilot who was not on duty. One resident of the house on which the machine fell was killed and four other people on the ground - two other residents and two firefighters - were injured. Among the passengers were the human rights activist Alison Des Forges , which for Human Rights Watch worked and thematically on the genocide in Rwanda was dedicated, the jazz musician Gerry Niewood and Coleman Mellett that on the way to a concert with Chuck Mangione and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra were and Beverly Eckert, vice chairwoman of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee and a senior figure in the Voices of September 11 association , whose husband was killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the World Trade Center .

examination

Both the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) were recovered and brought to Washington, DC for evaluation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) .

Initial evaluations by the flight recorders showed that the aircraft was making strong roll and pitch movements after the crew had extended the landing gear and brought the landing flaps into the approach configuration immediately before the crash . Up to this point the flight had been normal. The aircraft's de-icing system was switched on. During the descent, the crew reported visibility of three nautical miles. Originally it was assumed that the plane had flown straight into the house, but the investigations quickly revealed that the plane crashed onto it from above and the nose of the fuselage was pointing northeast, i.e. away from the runway.

Simulation of the last 2 minutes of NTSB's Colgan Air Flight 3407 (animation)

The transcripts of the voice recorder that have meanwhile been made for a congress hearing can be used to prove that the captain and co-pilot have violated the rules of the flight control authority. In addition, connections between the crash and inadequate working conditions are discussed, which consist in the fact that US pilots are sometimes massively underpaid and at the same time exposed to extreme working hours.

The investigation report on the crash shows that the master increased the intended minimum speed on the approach by 15 knots because of the threat of icing due to the weather conditions . This was not withdrawn before the final approach; however, a normal landing speed of 118 knots was chosen instead of the 138 knots required under icing conditions. As the speed fell below the higher set minimum speed during the approach, the stick shaker responded several times and the autopilot switched itself off. The captain very likely misinterpreted the unexpected situation. Instead of pushing, he pulled the steering column, increasing the angle of attack even further. A little later the stick pusher was activated, which automatically pushed the control column forward in order to immediately reduce the aircraft's angle of attack and thus prevent the imminent stall. Shortly afterwards, when the copilot completely retracted the flaps without being asked and without prior notice, the flow stalled completely and the aircraft tilted over the right wing. After half a spin and a loss of altitude of approx. 240 m, the aircraft hit the ground with the cockpit area first.

The crash is similar to the 1951 Turkish Airlines flight , which crashed on February 25, 2009, 13 days after the crash near Buffalo, also due to a loss of speed during the approach to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ N-Number Inquiry Results ( English ) In: FAA Registry . Federal Aviation Administration . Archived from the original on February 20, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 13, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / registry.faa.gov
  2. ↑ a b c Chris Dolmetsch, Miller, Hugo: Continental Flight Crashes Near Buffalo, Killing 50 (Update3) (English) , Bloomberg LP . February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009. 
  3. ↑ Mark Babineck, Hensel, Bill Jr: Records show Colgan flights had been fatality free (English) , The Chronicle. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009. 
  4. ^ ASN Aircraft accident de Havilland Canada DHC-8-402 Q400 N200WQ Buffalo Niagara International Airport, NY (BUF) ( English ) Aviation Safety Network. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  5. ↑ Emily Nipps: Pilot in Buffalo crash was from Pasco County (English) , St. Petersburg Times. February 13, 2009. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved February 14, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tampabay.com 
  6. ^ Co-pilot of crashed plane was from Wash ( English ) Katu. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  7. ↑ Flight 3407 crew members names released ( English ) wivb.com. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ a b All Calm Moments Before Plane Crashes (English) , CBS News. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009. 
  9. ↑ 50 killed as US plane crashes into house ( English ) Dawn. February 14, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  10. ^ A b Dale Anderson, Phil Fairbanks: Federal investigators begin searching for the cause of the Clarence Center crash. The Buffalo News on February 12, 2009, archived from the original on February 14, 2009 ; accessed on February 14, 2009 .
  11. ↑ Archive for Buffalo, 22: 00-22: 30 EST ( English , MP3) In: Recording of air traffic controller . LiveATC.net. Retrieved on February 14, 2009.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: dead link / archive-server.liveatc.net  
  12. ↑ Commuter Plane Crashes Into New York Home ( English ) cbsnews.com. February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  13. ↑ a b Search for answers begins in Buffalo plane crash ( English ) CNN. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  14. ↑ Track log for Continental Connection flight 3407 (CJC3407) ( English ) fboweb.com. February 12, 2009. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 14, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fboweb.com
  15. ↑ Obama extends sympathies to crash victims ( English ) UPI. February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
  16. ↑ a b c d NTSB: Crew reported ice buildup before crash ( English ) MSNBC . February 12, 2009. Retrieved on 2009-02-2009.
  17. ↑ Residents Survive After Plane Crashes Through Home (English) , WBEN 930 Buffalo, NY. February 13, 2009. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved February 14, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wben.com 
  18. ↑ Karen Wielinski tells her story of survival after Flight 3407 crashed into her home (English) . February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2009. 
  19. ↑ Mom, daughter escape after plane crashes into home ( English ) February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2009.
  20. ↑ Elizabeth Carey: Buffalo area plane crash claims 50 lives (English) , The Business Review. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2009. 
  21. ↑ a b NTSB: Plane didn't dive, landed flat on house ( English ) MSNBC . February 14, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  22. ^ Commuter Plane Crashes Into Buffalo Area Home; 50 Killed (English) , Fox News. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009. 
  23. ↑ Fiery Plane Crash In Upstate NY Kills 50 (English) , National Public Radio . February 13, 2009. 
  24. ^ Publicist: 2 Mangione musicians die in plane crash (English) , Associated Press . Archived from the original on February 20, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hosted.ap.org 
  25. ^ Black Boxes Found From Buffalo Crash ( English ) cbsnews.com. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  26. ^ NTSB: Crew Saw Ice Buildup Before Crash ( English ) CBS News. February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  27. ↑ n-tv : " 'Schwatzende Piloten im Visier' " (May 13, 2009, German)
  28. ↑ Spiegel Online : " 'Underpaid, overtired, crashed' " (February 23, 2010, German)
  29. ↑ FliegerRevue May 2010, p. 35, pilot error leads to crash

Web links

 Wikinews: 50 people killed in plane crash in New York state  - news