Bob Clifford Reacts to NTSB Hearing

Attending the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearings in Washington, D.C., Robert A. Clifford and a team of lawyers from his firm are disturbed by the findings revealing that the sterile cockpit rule was clearly violated.

"Going forward, though, the fact must not be lost that the installation of a low air speed alerter system in this aircraft, one which provides adequate warning prior to stick shaker or stall as recommended by the NTSB, would have prevented this tragedy altogether," Clifford said Tuesday.  Such an alerter system wouild have given the pilots more time to correct the low airspeed before the plane went into a stall, as experts testified had occurred on the Feb. 12 flight before the crash of the Bombardier Q-400.

Debbie Hersman, NTSB member, questioned the Bombardier representative at the hearing why such a system wasn't installed on Q400 airplanes when they are installed on other airplanes, and Allan Paige, Chief of Bombardier’s Flight Sciences Group during the Q400 development, said that it was "a design decision taken at the time of the aircraft" development.

"A mere software change could have corrected this," Clifford said, "and all of the lives would have been saved.:" Clifford Law Offices has filed four lawsuits on behalf of families who lost loved ones aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407 that crashed near Buffalo, New York.

"Low airspeed alerters with visual and aural alerts well before stall allow pilots to take preventive action and save lives," said Clifford, senior partner at the nationally recognized aviation firm. The NTSB hearings will continue through Thursday examining the cause of the crash of the Newark-to-Buffalo flight that was operated by Colgan Air, a regional carrier with links to Continental.