Animation of Colgan Buffalo crash

[nigelb]

I thought this might be interesting to see, not only for the reconstruction of the aircraft configuration during this incident but also for the simulator used for the animation. I think FS is far more sophisticated, but I suppose simplicity helps focus on the factors causing the crash.

http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2009/Buffalo ... iption.htm

Nigel²

[Chris Trott]

Looks like a proper reaction for percieved tailplane icing, however it was a airspeed induced stall, so the reaction was incorrect. Things just happened very quickly once they started developing and their failure to identify and rectify the decaying airspeed quickly is unfortunately the sole cause of this accident.

[Erick_Cantu]

The big question is how could a drop in airspeed that rapid go unnoticed? Is this a CRM issue? Were the pilots preoccupied? I don't know about you, but you don't normally go from 180 knots to 140 that quick without feeling something.

[Chris Trott]

Part of it is due to the icing and their preoccupation with it. They failed to properly account for the icing and the increase in stall speed that would occur. In addition, when they set in the flaps and the gear, this added additional iceable surfaces. They had probably flown this approach (and ones like it) dozens of times before but never in icing conditions like that, so they were no fully prepared to deal with it.

Most of that comes from 2 things - 1) lack of training for icing in the sim; and 2) lack of experience of icing conditions due to the rarity of encountering it during flight training or early career since most aircraft used in those situations are not equipped for any flight into it.