Jaunted

Tags: Flight 3407 / Tragedy / Continental / EWR / BUF / → All Tags

More Info, More Mysteries For Buffalo Crash

As investigators rush to recover information about Continental Connection Flight 3407, which took the lives of 50 last Thursday night when it crashed outside of Buffalo, the pieces still don't add up. But here's what we learned about the flight from this weekend:

Flight 3407 did not nosedive, but rather crashed flat. This pattern may explain why the plane only landed on one house, killing Douglas Wielinski, a man who lived there (and sending his family to the hospital with minor injuries), but sparing his neighbors.

The plane did, in fact, have major ice build-up. The theory floated early Friday that icing may have hastened 3407's descent is given grounding by the black boxes, which demonstrate that the flight crew both noticed the ice and had the plane de-icer on at the time of the crash.

The plane may have been on auto-pilot, violating airline regulations. It's the policy of Colgan Air, which operated Flight 3407, that pilots manually operate the plane in cases of "severe" icing, which may not have been present that night. Still, it's chilling to think that anything might have kept the captain and crew from righting the plane in case conditions in the air suddenly changed.

Related Stories:
· Flight 3407 Plummeted Straight Down, Killing 50 [ABC News]
· Stunned N.Y. town mourns amid questions about Flight 3407 procedures [LA Times]
· Unease Over Weather’s Role in a City Known for Snow [NY Times]
· Friday: 49 Dead In Upstate N.Y. Continental Crash [Jaunted]

[Photo of Buffalo Niagara International Airport, Flight 3407's final destination: darkwater]

Tags: Tragedy / Dangerous Travel / Continental / Flight 3407 / Disasters / → All Tags

49 Dead In Upstate N.Y. Continental Crash

All 48 passengers aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407 were killed late last night when the plane crashed into a suburban house near Buffalo, New York. The crash also claimed one life in the house where the plane landed in the hamlet of Clarence Center.

According to early reports, Flight 3407 operated by Colgan Air departing from Newark abruptly lost contact with air traffic control before crashing about five miles from its destination, Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Ice build-up on the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 74-seat turboprop may also have been to blame; in tapes released last night, air traffic control can be heard checking with other flight crews before vainly attempting to contact the pilot of Flight 3407.

Passengers included a Jacksonville, Florida law student and a September 11 widow who listened to her husband via cell phone while he was in the south tower. This is the first fatal crash in the U.S. since August 2006. An investigation into the crash site has been delayed while the wreckage is still burning.

Related Stories:
· 49 Killed in Plane Crash Near Buffalo [NY Times]
· 49 Killed As Plane Crashes Into Home In Clarence Center [Buffalo News]
· Sept. 11 Widow Among Plane Crash Victims [MSNBC]

[Photo: Buffalo News]