Initial 'incorrect' response set course for Flight 3407's crash
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Capt. Marvin Renslow did the exact opposite of what he should have done trying to pull out of a fatal stall that led to the crash of Colgan Flight 3407, the chief test pilot for the Bombardier Q-400 testified this afternoon.
Capt. 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, what the Flight 3407 crew did right as it approached the Buffalo International Airport on Feb. 12.
"Obviously, the initial reaction to the stall warning was incorrect, that set the course for their actions," Warner testified.
Hersman asked Warner if pulling back the yoke, causing the plane to pitch upward, was the right action.
"No," Warner replied.
He said the proper thing to do, as he done the 1,000 times he put the Q-400 through its paces, was to lower the nose — not raise it as he did — and increase power.
Had Renslow done that, Hersman asked, could he have recovered the aircraft in time, even as he approached the airfield?
"In my opinion," Warner testified, "you could be at that altitude the airplane was at, you could still lower the nose, increase the power and recover."
There is no or little emotion at the hearing, and there seemed to be little reaction to what Warner had essentially just said: had Renslow followed the proper procedure, Flight 3407 would not have crashed, and 50 lives would not have been lost.
Earlier witnesses virtually ruled out another possibility of explaining what Renslow did, a tail stall.
An airplane stall does not refer to the engine failing, but to the sudden lack of wind over the wings that keeps a plane in flight.
A NASA aerospace engineer showed a video that was done of a NASA test pilot recovering from a rare tail stall. That's what happens when the wind over the rear tail fails to keep the plane aloft.
Tom Ratavasky said that he was aware that Colgan pilots viewed the videotape, even though Bombardier and Colgan officials said that Q-400 has never had a tail stall and was designed not to.
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.
Don Stimson, an FAA aerospace engineer, said: "A tail place stall in the FAA is considered unacceptable. When we discover it [in an aircraft], we take action to correct it."
Earlier today, Flight 3407 again appeared pristine, the white Colgan Q-400 approaching Buffalo Niagara International Airport as a hearing room packed with friends and family of those aboard watched the doomed flight of their loved ones on what looked to be a routine approach.
It was a 3D computer simulation that opened this first day of hearings by the National Transportation Safety Board, and the audience followed along as Capt. Marvin D. Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Lynn Shaw guided the aircraft toward their last landing of the day.
Before she showed the animation, 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. Several people left.
The animation showed the final two minutes of Flight 3407's flight from Newark to Buffalo. It was a bird's eye view, as if another plane had followed the Colgan aircraft on its descent into Buffalo, before it crashed and burned and took 50 lives.
What the animation did not show was the idle cockpit chatter between Renslow and Shaw, as they talked for three minutes about icing conditions and their previous training, and how they would rather be landing in Houston.
It was the first violation of sacrosanct FAA regulations that forbid anything but essential conversation in the cockpit below 10,000 feet.
There were other violations that Ward mentioned in her opening statement.
Colgan Air had issued a policy forbidding pilots and first officers from sleeping overnight in the crewroom at Newark. Neither Renslow, who lived in Lutz, Fla., nor Shaw, who had recently moved to the state of Washington, had any record of a place to stay in Newark, Ward testified. Renslow had told others that he sometimes slept in the crew room.
Shaw had commuted to work the night before Flight 3407, catching a flight on a Federal Express plane. Colgan had earlier issued a directive about commuting on flight days.
Colgan Air told the NTSB that, of its 137 pilots based in Newark, 93 commute to work. Forty-nine of the pilots had commutes greater than 400 miles.
Today's animation did not show anything that had not already been released by the NTSB. But actually seeing the aircraft roll, watching as the stick shaker alarm goes off, and the final word from the captain, a grunt, made the crash seem as real as to those who heard it strike the ground.
The animation began at 10:14 p.m., when the Q 400 was 2,300 feet above the airport approach and was coming in at 180 knots. A minute later, the air traffic controller cleared the flight for landing, and told the pilot and first officer to have a good night. The greeting was returned.
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 animation did not show it, but the NTSB earlier said that Renslow pulled back on the aircraft center console, exactly the wrong step to take when the aircraft is in a stall.
The recommended approach is to lower the plane's nose, not to raise it, and increase the power to bring it out of the stall.
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.
First, he addressed the families who had gathered:
"I want to express our sincere condolences for your tragic loss," Rosenker said. "While air accidents are rare entities, they are publicized and scrutinized throughout the world."
The NTSB, he said, holds these hearings and determines the cause of aviation accidents in the hopes of preventing future disasters.
Following an emotional meeting this morning between U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and families of Flight 3407 victims, the senator promised to push for swift implementation of any recommendations that result from the ongoing investigation into the Feb. 12 crash.
Speaking with nine family members inside his Senate office, Schumer told the group the Federal Aviation Administration during the Bush administration put money ahead of safety, and that he's determined to make sure that doesn't occur during the Obama administration.
Schumer vowed to meet with President Obama's nominee as FAA chief to get assurances that the lessons learned from the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the Flight 3407 crash will lead to safety improvements in the airline industry.
"You can be assured I will be with you, not just today, but a year from now and two years from now," Schumer told the family members. "We will get down to the bottom of this."
During an hour-long session with Schumer, family members told the senator about their loved ones who died in the crash, and asked his help in getting reforms so that similar accidents cannot occur in the future.
At one point during the meeting, Schumer asked the group to hold hands, then said: "We know those who lost their lives are at peace. We hope and pray we can accomplish something in their names."
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