Pilot: 'Most icing I've seen'; Co-pilot: 'I've never de-iced.'
WASHINGTON — As their plane approached Buffalo on Feb. 12, the pilot of Continental Connection Flight 3407 said he would rather be flying into Houston and noted his own lack of experience minutes before the plane crashed in Clarence on Feb. 12, and the co-pilot complained of her inexperience in icing conditions.
Those details, revealed in a transcript of the plane's flight voice recorder released by the National Transportation Safety Board, show the crew of the doomed flight violating federal rules against extraneous chatter when a plane is flying below 10,000 feet.
Complete Buffalo News coverage of the crash of Flight 3407
The transcripts were released on the first of three days of safety board hearings on the crash, which claimed 50 lives.
"Down in Houston y- you're more spread out," Capt. Marvin Renslow, said at 10:03 p.m., just 13 minutes before the plane crashed. "Uh the flying is a whole lot nicer down there. The controllers are a whole lot nicer. In Florida the same."
Apparently referring to flying in the Northeast, Renslow then said: "It's just all the pressure of all the the congestion and the the volume and weather and anything and everything."
At 10:06 the plane descended below 10,000 feet. And four minutes later, Renslow complained of the ice that was forming on the plane's windshield and wings.
"That's the most I've seen … most ice I've seen on the leading edges in a long time," Renslow said.
A minute later, Renslow noted that he was hired by Colgan Air, which operated the flight, with just 625 hours of flying experience.
"That's not much for uh back when you got hired," Renslow said.
A moment later, the co-pilot, Rebecca Lynn Shaw, complained of her own inexperience.
"I've never seen icing conditions," she said. "I've never de-iced. I've never seen any. I've never experienced any of that. I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know I'd 've freaked out. I'd have like seen this much ice and thought oh my gosh we were going to crash."
Moments later, the crew lowered the plane's flaps and landing gear, and the plane quickly encountered trouble.
The plane's "stick shaker," a stall warning device, activated at 10:16 p.m. for nearly seven seconds. During that time, the safety board said, Renslow inappropriately pulled back on the plane's yoke, pushing its nose upward. That altered the airflow over the wings and sent the plane tumbling.
While the safety board showed a dramatic animated re-creation of the plane losing control, the flight voice recorder is spotty from that moment on.
After a sound of the engine power increasing, Renslow said: "Jesus Christ."
At that point, the stick shaker activated again and Shaw said she put the flaps up.
Renslow grunted and uttered a partly inaudible sound that sounded like "ther bear."
Shaw then asked: "Should the gear up?"
"Gear up oh," Renslow replied.
Noise increased in the background, and Renslow said: "We're down."
The recording ended with Shaw's screams.
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