Firm News

Colgan Air Flight 3407’s Captain Caused Crash - NTSB

Posted on May 14, 2009

Colgan Air Flight 3407's Captain did the exact opposite of what he should have done trying to pull out of a fatal stall that led to the crash near Buffalo on Feb 12, 2009.

Captain Wally Warner, who said he conducted more than 1,000 stall recoveries for the Q-400 test flights, was asked by Debbie Hersman, a NTSB board member, if pulling back the yoke, causing the plane to pitch upward, was the right action.

"No, the proper thing to do, as he had done the 1,000 times he put the Q-400 through its paces, was to lower the nose and increase power." Warner replied. "In my opinion," Warner testified, "even at the altitude the airplane was at, you could still lower the nose, increase the power and recover."

Earlier witnesses virtually ruled out another possibility, a tail stall. A NASA aerospace engineer showed a video, which Renlow viewed, showing a NASA test pilot recovering from a rare tail stall. What the NASA test pilot did to come out of the tail stall was what Renslow did: Jerk the nose of the plane up.

Why show the video, Ratavasky was asked, for a plane that does not encounter tail stalls?
"Making a pilot aware of the aerodynamics of an airplane is valuable," he answered.

Before the viewing of the final 2 minutes of Flight 3407's last landing of the day was played, Lorenda Ward, the hearing office and NTSB investigator in charge, allowed a minute for families who could not bear to watch the recreation to leave the hearing room.

The animation did not show the idle cockpit chatter (FAA Violation below 10,000 ft.) between Renslow and Shaw. There were other violations that Ward mentioned in her opening statement including sleeping in the crew rooms and commuting to work via a federal express flight the night before.

The animation began at 10:14 p.m., when the Q 400 was 2,300 feet above the airport. A minute later, the air traffic controller cleared the flight for landing. The flight crew put the landing gear down, and a few seconds later, the trouble began, when the stick shaker warning activated. The aircraft suddenly pitched up, it rolled to the left, rolled to the right.

The aircraft then started its deep descent as it plummeted to earth in Clarence Center. The animation ended at that point, and the next thing shown was an aerial view of the wreckage, only the blue Colgan tail recognizable.

Mark V. Rosenker, acting chairman of the NTSB, said the three-day hearing will be a continued search for the causes of the plane crash.

The NTSB, he said, holds these hearings and determines the cause of aviation accidents in the hopes of preventing future disasters.

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