Date: 2/26/2009
By KATIE OYAN
Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) — Four passengers on a Continental Airlines jet that veered off a Denver runway in December have filed suit against the jet’s maker.
The lawsuits filed in federal court in Denver allege that Boeing Co. negligently designed and manufactured certain parts of the plane, including its “directional control mechanisms.”
The complaints contend the defective parts made it hard for the pilots to maintain runway heading while taking off in high crosswinds.
Boeing did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday night.
On Dec. 20, the Houston-bound Boeing 737 veered sharply off the Denver International Airport runway and into a ravine, where it caught fire. The flight was carrying 110 passengers and five crew members; 38 people were injured.
Gusts of up to 37 mph were reported at the airport on the day of the accident, and aviation safety experts have said strong crosswinds likely were a factor in the crash.
The four passengers say they suffered emotional and physical injuries and loss of personal property in the wreck. They’re seeking compensatory and other damages.
At least eight other passengers on flight 1404 are suing Continental. They claim the airline failed to properly operate or control the aircraft as it veered off the runway.
Continental has said it is prepared to defend the company’s actions and those of the plane’s crew.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Cyclical menace of ice revisits aviation
Date: 2/14/2009
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press Writers
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Every time ice is suspected of bringing down a plane, the volume rises on how best to protect aircraft from the all-too-common and all-too-disastrous phenomenon. And each time, the conversation fades before significant changes are made.
Authorities caution that they’re still investigating why Continental Connection Flight 3407 dropped out of the sky onto a house Thursday night, killing 50 people. But recordings show the crew was concerned about ice buildup on the windshield and wings shortly before the crash.
With planes carefully designed for aerodynamics, a buildup of ice can affect their lift and handling. A crash blamed on ice killed 68 people in 1994 in Indiana, another killed 29 people in 1997 in Detroit.
Investigators know the Buffalo plane’s deicing system was turned on and say it appeared to be working. What they don’t know is when it was activated or how much time the pilot had to react.
Planes are deiced before takeoff to remove any ice that collects beforehand. Sometimes, they must be deiced in the air as they descend and encounter the necessary mix of temperature and precipitation for ice to form.
If a midair deicing system isn’t working, guidelines from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Foundation say pilots can take a number of steps, including changing speed, pulling the nose up or down, or trying a 180-degree turn to rid the plane of ice.
It’s not known what steps the pilot in Thursday’s crash might have taken if he was experiencing ice buildup. But the plane had been approaching the airport, and investigators said Saturday that it apparently was pointing in the opposite direction when it crashed.
Pilots of turboprop planes like those in the Buffalo-area crash must turn on their deicing equipment when they notice buildup. The NTSB wants to go a step further and require them to turn the equipment on when conditions are right for icing.
Then there’s talk of an automated ice-detection system like those used in jetliners — but some automated systems can cost upward of $500,000, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo, a Q400 Bombardier, was equipped with rubber bladders that can be inflated by the pilot to crack ice on the nose, wings and tail; the wind then sweeps away the cracked ice.
Many procedures and devices can help ensure icing is not dangerous, and pilots need to keep up on the latest developments, Chealander said.
“You can design everything in the world, but if the human being doesn’t use all those things constantly and focus on them constantly, then you can have tragic consequences,” he said.
“I’m not trying to draw any conclusions about this accident, I’m just saying in general, we can never let up our focus on all these types of things,” he added.
Once activated on the newer model that the Buffalo pilot flew, the bladders inflate and deflate every 24 seconds automatically, a system that NTSB Vice Chairman Steve Chealander called “very sophisticated” at a Saturday briefing.
Not mentioning the Federal Aviation Administration by name, Chealander said the NTSB’s recommendations to stiffen rules on deicing have gone unheeded for years.
“We don’t like the progress that’s taken place right now,” Chealander told The Associated Press on Saturday.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said her agency has not ignored the NTSB recommendations and has issued more than 100 airworthiness directives since 1994 that address icing.
“Their concern is this is not happening quickly enough,” Brown said. “As with any safety improvement that is significant, we have to go through rulemaking to get there. It takes time.”
In 2007, the FAA proposed requiring better ways to detect ice buildup or let pilots know about conditions that could cause ice buildup — in future airplane designs.
It also proposed methods that could help automatically detect ice or potentially icy weather and cue the pilot to turn on deicers. The rule is in the final stages of executive review.
In big jets, crews use heat from the engines to warm the wings and prevent ice buildup. But smaller commuter planes like the 74-seater that crashed Thursday had no such option.
“The big planes are using it off their jet engines,” said Justin T. Green, an aviation attorney in New York who has represented the families of victims of air disasters.
The threat of icing looms so commonly that Robert Benzon, the chief investigator of the January splashdown in the Hudson River of a US Airways jetliner, described it as a cyclical menace during an interview last month.
“You do a rash of wing icing accidents,” he said. “We rattle our sword. The industry gets its act together and then as time passes, things start to slip and 10 years down the road you get another rash of this type of accident. It’s a difficult thing to overcome.”
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in New York and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press Writers
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Every time ice is suspected of bringing down a plane, the volume rises on how best to protect aircraft from the all-too-common and all-too-disastrous phenomenon. And each time, the conversation fades before significant changes are made.
Authorities caution that they’re still investigating why Continental Connection Flight 3407 dropped out of the sky onto a house Thursday night, killing 50 people. But recordings show the crew was concerned about ice buildup on the windshield and wings shortly before the crash.
With planes carefully designed for aerodynamics, a buildup of ice can affect their lift and handling. A crash blamed on ice killed 68 people in 1994 in Indiana, another killed 29 people in 1997 in Detroit.
Investigators know the Buffalo plane’s deicing system was turned on and say it appeared to be working. What they don’t know is when it was activated or how much time the pilot had to react.
Planes are deiced before takeoff to remove any ice that collects beforehand. Sometimes, they must be deiced in the air as they descend and encounter the necessary mix of temperature and precipitation for ice to form.
If a midair deicing system isn’t working, guidelines from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Foundation say pilots can take a number of steps, including changing speed, pulling the nose up or down, or trying a 180-degree turn to rid the plane of ice.
It’s not known what steps the pilot in Thursday’s crash might have taken if he was experiencing ice buildup. But the plane had been approaching the airport, and investigators said Saturday that it apparently was pointing in the opposite direction when it crashed.
Pilots of turboprop planes like those in the Buffalo-area crash must turn on their deicing equipment when they notice buildup. The NTSB wants to go a step further and require them to turn the equipment on when conditions are right for icing.
Then there’s talk of an automated ice-detection system like those used in jetliners — but some automated systems can cost upward of $500,000, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo, a Q400 Bombardier, was equipped with rubber bladders that can be inflated by the pilot to crack ice on the nose, wings and tail; the wind then sweeps away the cracked ice.
Many procedures and devices can help ensure icing is not dangerous, and pilots need to keep up on the latest developments, Chealander said.
“You can design everything in the world, but if the human being doesn’t use all those things constantly and focus on them constantly, then you can have tragic consequences,” he said.
“I’m not trying to draw any conclusions about this accident, I’m just saying in general, we can never let up our focus on all these types of things,” he added.
Once activated on the newer model that the Buffalo pilot flew, the bladders inflate and deflate every 24 seconds automatically, a system that NTSB Vice Chairman Steve Chealander called “very sophisticated” at a Saturday briefing.
Not mentioning the Federal Aviation Administration by name, Chealander said the NTSB’s recommendations to stiffen rules on deicing have gone unheeded for years.
“We don’t like the progress that’s taken place right now,” Chealander told The Associated Press on Saturday.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said her agency has not ignored the NTSB recommendations and has issued more than 100 airworthiness directives since 1994 that address icing.
“Their concern is this is not happening quickly enough,” Brown said. “As with any safety improvement that is significant, we have to go through rulemaking to get there. It takes time.”
In 2007, the FAA proposed requiring better ways to detect ice buildup or let pilots know about conditions that could cause ice buildup — in future airplane designs.
It also proposed methods that could help automatically detect ice or potentially icy weather and cue the pilot to turn on deicers. The rule is in the final stages of executive review.
In big jets, crews use heat from the engines to warm the wings and prevent ice buildup. But smaller commuter planes like the 74-seater that crashed Thursday had no such option.
“The big planes are using it off their jet engines,” said Justin T. Green, an aviation attorney in New York who has represented the families of victims of air disasters.
The threat of icing looms so commonly that Robert Benzon, the chief investigator of the January splashdown in the Hudson River of a US Airways jetliner, described it as a cyclical menace during an interview last month.
“You do a rash of wing icing accidents,” he said. “We rattle our sword. The industry gets its act together and then as time passes, things start to slip and 10 years down the road you get another rash of this type of accident. It’s a difficult thing to overcome.”
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in New York and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Crashed commuter plane was new, had good record
Date: 2/13/2009
By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The commuter plane that crashed into a home near Buffalo, N.Y., was new and had a clean safety record, officials said Friday, leaving investigators few immediate clues about why it suddenly plunged just minutes before its planned landing, killing 50 people.
The twin turboprop aircraft — Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J. — was coming in for a landing when it crashed Thursday night about five miles short of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
The flight was operated by Colgan Air Inc., based in Manassas, Va. Colgan is owned by Pinnacle Airlines Corp.
The 74-seat Q400 Bombardier aircraft, registered last April, was delayed almost two hours before departing Newark, N.J.
But Philip H. Trenary, who heads Pinnacle Airlines Corp. and operator Colgan Air, said at a news conference Friday that he didn’t know why there was a delay.
Trenary said the plane was a “next-generation turbo prop, very modern.”
“It’s an aircraft that’s had flawless service,” he said. “So no, there have been no indications of problems with the aircraft.”
Bombardier spokesman Marc Duchesne said the plane was put into service very recently and is only a few months old.
Though skies were foggy and winds were 17 mph, there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary and no mayday call from the pilot, according to a recording of air traffic control radio messages captured by the Web site LiveATC.net.
William Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, said the near vertical drop of the plane suggests a sudden loss of control. One witness said the plane “basically dove” onto house.
Voss said possible causes include icing or a mechanical failure, such as wing flaps deploying out of synch to different positions or the two engines putting out uneven thrust. Similarly, Don Maciejewski, a former military pilot and aviation attorney, said the sharp drop coupled with a witness who reported hearing a change in engine noise could indicate engine failure or ice buildup on the tail.
“There are a limited number of things that can cause an aircraft to lose control,” Voss said.
Wind gusts hit 65 mph on Thursday and the Federal Aviation Administration said flights were delayed by nearly four hours at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Trenary also would not speculate on if weather played a role in the crash, which killed all 49 people on board and one on the ground.
The Q400 is popular for intermediate flights, especially after recent spikes in aviation fuel prices.
The Q400 has not been involved in any fatal crashes in the United States, though it has had problems with its landing gear.
Scandinavian Airlines grounded its 27 Dash 8 Q400 aircraft in 2007 after problems with landing gear caused three crash landings in seven weeks in Europe. No one was seriously hurt in those accidents.
Voss said it’s “extremely unlikely” landing gear played a role in the crash five miles from the airport.
Bombardier said it has dispatched a product safety and technical team to the site to assist the National Transportation Safety Board with their investigation.
__
Associated Press Writer Ula Ilnytzky contributed to this report from New York City.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The commuter plane that crashed into a home near Buffalo, N.Y., was new and had a clean safety record, officials said Friday, leaving investigators few immediate clues about why it suddenly plunged just minutes before its planned landing, killing 50 people.
The twin turboprop aircraft — Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J. — was coming in for a landing when it crashed Thursday night about five miles short of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
The flight was operated by Colgan Air Inc., based in Manassas, Va. Colgan is owned by Pinnacle Airlines Corp.
The 74-seat Q400 Bombardier aircraft, registered last April, was delayed almost two hours before departing Newark, N.J.
But Philip H. Trenary, who heads Pinnacle Airlines Corp. and operator Colgan Air, said at a news conference Friday that he didn’t know why there was a delay.
Trenary said the plane was a “next-generation turbo prop, very modern.”
“It’s an aircraft that’s had flawless service,” he said. “So no, there have been no indications of problems with the aircraft.”
Bombardier spokesman Marc Duchesne said the plane was put into service very recently and is only a few months old.
Though skies were foggy and winds were 17 mph, there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary and no mayday call from the pilot, according to a recording of air traffic control radio messages captured by the Web site LiveATC.net.
William Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, said the near vertical drop of the plane suggests a sudden loss of control. One witness said the plane “basically dove” onto house.
Voss said possible causes include icing or a mechanical failure, such as wing flaps deploying out of synch to different positions or the two engines putting out uneven thrust. Similarly, Don Maciejewski, a former military pilot and aviation attorney, said the sharp drop coupled with a witness who reported hearing a change in engine noise could indicate engine failure or ice buildup on the tail.
“There are a limited number of things that can cause an aircraft to lose control,” Voss said.
Wind gusts hit 65 mph on Thursday and the Federal Aviation Administration said flights were delayed by nearly four hours at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Trenary also would not speculate on if weather played a role in the crash, which killed all 49 people on board and one on the ground.
The Q400 is popular for intermediate flights, especially after recent spikes in aviation fuel prices.
The Q400 has not been involved in any fatal crashes in the United States, though it has had problems with its landing gear.
Scandinavian Airlines grounded its 27 Dash 8 Q400 aircraft in 2007 after problems with landing gear caused three crash landings in seven weeks in Europe. No one was seriously hurt in those accidents.
Voss said it’s “extremely unlikely” landing gear played a role in the crash five miles from the airport.
Bombardier said it has dispatched a product safety and technical team to the site to assist the National Transportation Safety Board with their investigation.
__
Associated Press Writer Ula Ilnytzky contributed to this report from New York City.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Trial over Concorde crash set for February 2010
Date: 1/12/2009
PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors say the manslaughter trial of Continental Airlines and five people over the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people will begin outside Paris next year.
They said Monday the trial is set to open Feb. 2, 2010, in the Paris suburb of Pontoise, and should last until the following May.
The Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport in July 2000, killing all 109 people on board — mostly German tourists — and four on the ground.
Investigators say the crash was caused in part by a titanium strip from a Continental DC-10 that was on the runway when the Concorde took off.
Employees of Continental, the Concorde’s maker and France’s civilian aviation authority are to stand trial.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors say the manslaughter trial of Continental Airlines and five people over the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people will begin outside Paris next year.
They said Monday the trial is set to open Feb. 2, 2010, in the Paris suburb of Pontoise, and should last until the following May.
The Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport in July 2000, killing all 109 people on board — mostly German tourists — and four on the ground.
Investigators say the crash was caused in part by a titanium strip from a Continental DC-10 that was on the runway when the Concorde took off.
Employees of Continental, the Concorde’s maker and France’s civilian aviation authority are to stand trial.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Odd bumping noise heard on Denver plane’s tape
Tue Dec 23, 6:25 am ET
By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer –
DENVER – Investigators trying to determine why a Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and skidded into a ravine heard an odd bumping and rattling noise on the flight’s recorders shortly before it tried to take off.
The noise was detected 41 seconds after the jet started speeding down a runway at Denver International Airport on Saturday. Four seconds later, one of the crew members called for the takeoff to be aborted, said Robert Sumwalt, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The recording ends six seconds after that, probably because the plane slammed to the ground after hurtling off an embankment, he said.
Sumwalt revealed the findings late Monday after an initial review of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Experts planned to begin a more in-depth analysis of the contents of the recorders in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday while investigators return to the plane’s wreckage in a snowy field at the airport.
All 115 passengers and crew members escaped the jet, which caught fire on the right side. Thirty-eight people were injured, including the plane’s captain.
Sumwalt said investigators have found no problems with the plane’s engines, tires or brakes, but they are not yet ruling anything out.
The plane traveled about 2,000 feet after leaving the runway, crossing a grassy strip and a taxiway before going off the embankment, hitting the ground at its base. It then went up a slight hill, over an access road and then down another small hill on the other side of the road before landing on its belly, its landing gear shorn off.
Lead NTSB investigator Bill English said the plane’s flight data recorder shows the thrusters on both engines were switched to reverse. He said that normally happens when crew members try to stop a takeoff.
Sumwalt said investigators are still gathering information about the exact wind conditions on the runway at the time of the accident. However, he said the cockpit voice recorder contained no comments about wind.
Investigators have not yet interviewed the plane’s captain, who was flying the plane, because Sumwalt said he is physically unable. He didn’t elaborate. They have talked to the first officer, who said the plane began moving off the center of the runway as it reached about 103 mph while speeding down the runway for takeoff.
The plane continued to accelerate, reaching a maximum speed of about 137 mph, Sumwalt said.
Off-duty crew members who had flown the plane earlier in the day also were on board at the time of the accident, and Sumwalt said the first officer from that crew returned to the plane three times to help rescue passengers. Sumwalt also reported that those crew members said they had no problems with the plane during their flight.
A fire charred and ripped open much of the right side of the plane, with the worst damage around a crack around the fuselage. Sumwalt said all the passenger seats remained intact during the plane’s wild ride off the runway, although seats in row 18, near the crack, had loose fittings.
Sumwalt said the runway was bare and dry when the plane attempted to take off for Houston and no debris was found there.
___
On the Net:
Denver Airport: http://www.flydenver.com
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press
By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer –
DENVER – Investigators trying to determine why a Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and skidded into a ravine heard an odd bumping and rattling noise on the flight’s recorders shortly before it tried to take off.
The noise was detected 41 seconds after the jet started speeding down a runway at Denver International Airport on Saturday. Four seconds later, one of the crew members called for the takeoff to be aborted, said Robert Sumwalt, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The recording ends six seconds after that, probably because the plane slammed to the ground after hurtling off an embankment, he said.
Sumwalt revealed the findings late Monday after an initial review of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Experts planned to begin a more in-depth analysis of the contents of the recorders in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday while investigators return to the plane’s wreckage in a snowy field at the airport.
All 115 passengers and crew members escaped the jet, which caught fire on the right side. Thirty-eight people were injured, including the plane’s captain.
Sumwalt said investigators have found no problems with the plane’s engines, tires or brakes, but they are not yet ruling anything out.
The plane traveled about 2,000 feet after leaving the runway, crossing a grassy strip and a taxiway before going off the embankment, hitting the ground at its base. It then went up a slight hill, over an access road and then down another small hill on the other side of the road before landing on its belly, its landing gear shorn off.
Lead NTSB investigator Bill English said the plane’s flight data recorder shows the thrusters on both engines were switched to reverse. He said that normally happens when crew members try to stop a takeoff.
Sumwalt said investigators are still gathering information about the exact wind conditions on the runway at the time of the accident. However, he said the cockpit voice recorder contained no comments about wind.
Investigators have not yet interviewed the plane’s captain, who was flying the plane, because Sumwalt said he is physically unable. He didn’t elaborate. They have talked to the first officer, who said the plane began moving off the center of the runway as it reached about 103 mph while speeding down the runway for takeoff.
The plane continued to accelerate, reaching a maximum speed of about 137 mph, Sumwalt said.
Off-duty crew members who had flown the plane earlier in the day also were on board at the time of the accident, and Sumwalt said the first officer from that crew returned to the plane three times to help rescue passengers. Sumwalt also reported that those crew members said they had no problems with the plane during their flight.
A fire charred and ripped open much of the right side of the plane, with the worst damage around a crack around the fuselage. Sumwalt said all the passenger seats remained intact during the plane’s wild ride off the runway, although seats in row 18, near the crack, had loose fittings.
Sumwalt said the runway was bare and dry when the plane attempted to take off for Houston and no debris was found there.
___
On the Net:
Denver Airport: http://www.flydenver.com
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press