• A big no-no With the conditions outside pretty cruddy, pilots flying to Buffalo needed to take extra care about ice on their planes’ wings. The National Transportation Safety Board tells them not to fly their planes on autopilot in such a situation. But the plane that crashed and killed 50 people was on autopilot, possibly violating federal safety recommendations.
• “Significant” ice buildup The pilots of the plane, who also died in the crash, were aware of the ice on the plane and discussed it shortly before the crash. Colgan Air, the operators of the plane, had installed deicing systems specifically for this purpose, but it’s unknown when the pilots chose to turn them on. In unrelated news, this guy is lucky he wasn’t on the plane. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink