NTSB Releases Probable Cause of Buffalo Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) met all day yesterday (Feb. 2, 2010) and announced its finding on the probably cause of the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 in Clarence Center, New York, nearly a year ago.

In finding a number of flight crew failures, the NTSB said that the captain of the flight “inappropriately responded to the activation of the stick shaker, which lead to an aerodynamic stall from which the airplane did not recover.”

All 49 people on board and one person on the ground died when the Bombardier DHC-8-400 crashed into the house.

With respect to pilots and air traffic control (ATC), the NTSB also announced that it would be holding a forum for high standards and professionalism for pilots and ATC.  It also announced that it would be holding a symposium in the fall to examine the marketing by major airlines whose services are actually performed by regional airlines.  In this case the Continental Connection flight actually was provided by Colgan Air.

The NTSB issued recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding the installation of low airspeed alerting systems that provide aural and visual cues to better warn pilots, strategies to prevent flight crew monitoring failures, pilot professionalism, fatigue, remedial training, pilot records, stall training, and airspeed selection procedures.  Additional recommendations address FAA’s oversight and use of safety alerts for operators to transmit safety-critical information, flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) programs, use of personal portable electronic devices on the flight deck, and weather information provided to pilots.

Prior to holding public hearings last year on what occurred, Robert A. Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, wrote a letter on May 7, 2009, to then Acting Chairman of the NTSB and various congressional representatives and leaders on behalf of the families of five passengers who died in the crash his firm represents.  The letters ask that these governmental officials specifically continue to pressure industry for the installation of low airspeed alerter systems.  We are pleased to see the NTSB continue its efforts on this important issue.  A copy of these letters can be found at http://aviation.cliffordlaw.com/news/firm-news.

An abstract of the NTSB’s executive summary, probable cause, conclusions and safety recommendations can be found at http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2010/AAR1001.htm.