Firm News

Continental Connections Flight 3407 Is One of the Most Deadly Crashes in American History

Posted on Mar 11, 2009

According to the Buffalo News, the Continental Connections Flight 3407 tragedy ranks as the 22nd most deadly crash of American commercial flights during the past 30 years.

The Feb. 12 crash in Clarence which claimed 50 lives is among the top three aviation disasters involving prop planes.

One of the two other worst propeller driven airplane crashes was in 1985 outside Reno, NV and the other was in 1993 in Indiana.

If icing was a cause in the Buffalo disaster of flight 3407, it will be included in 12 such icing related accidents over the past 30 years. Of those 12 icing related crashes, 8 involved propeller planes. One half of the fatalities of those 12 icing related crashes, included 471 fatalities and turboprops were involved in one half of those tragedies.

Although it is too soon for the National Transportation Safety Board to determine, icing and pilot error are the two most likely causes of the crash according to the article. The article also points out that, "Of the 25 most deadly plane crashes in the past 30 years, three were blamed, at least in part, on icing. "

The most deadly of these accidents caused by icing occurred aboard the Arrow Air military charter, Flight 1285, carrying 101st Airborne Division soldiers. The flight was returning the soldiers to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for the Christmas holiday when it crashed shortly after take off in Newfoundland, Canada. The soldiers had been peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. All 253 on board were killed. Icing was found to be a contributing factor of that crash.

Another icing accident involving a jet occurred Jan. 13, 1982, in Washington D.C. Air Florida Flight 90 was on takeoff heading to Fort Lauderdale, FL when shortly after takeoff, the Boeing 737 fell from the sky, hitting a bridge before plunging into the Potomac River, killing 78 people. The cause of that crash was found to be improper use of deicing equipment prior to the attempted takeoff.

While jet planes are not immune to icing problems and tragedies, turboprops are more vulnerable because of their lack of de-icing features.