Continental Airlines DHC-8-Q400 down in New York State

A passenger plane with 48 people on board has crashed into a house in New York State.

Colgan Air operated Q400 on behalf of Continental possibly N200WQ 

Aviation officials say 44 passengers and four crew were on board Continental Airlines flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo.

New York officials say many people have been killed but they have not released any numbers at this stage.

Reports say a person on the ground is believed to have died as well. Two other people have been taken to hospital.

Fire crews are at the site and are still working to bring the blaze under control.

Officials declined to confirm reports that all 48 people on board were killed.

The plane crashed into the house in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center five minutes before it was due to land.

RIP

• Filed under: DHC-8, Continental Airlines, N200WQ

 Here is the edited audio from the incident.

A real tragedy!

• Filed under: Colgan Air, Dash 8, Bombardier Q400

 

Tragedy! Having flown the Q400 for 5 years within SAS I remembered briefing on the possibility of elevator stall during final approach. Full flaps and icing conditions would be the most "risky" configuration for that to occur. Recovery - as we discussed - was stick fwd, full thrust, flaps up and start pulling when the elevator was flying again. This is a manouver that would feel a bit awkward close to the ground. This is not a any official procedure from neither the manufacurer or SAS. This is something we discussed in between pilots. The investigation will tell. It seems the aircraft has crashed nose down or at least with little forward speed, hence the fact only one house in a populated area was destroyed. God Bless them all.

http://flightcrewtraining.us/_wsn/page3.html                              The Consequence of Tailplane Icing.          Following the catastrophic loss of a modern turboprop airplane a few years ago there appeared numerous studies trying to determine the exact cause of that accident. A review of other accidents which had occurred previously, there emerged a startling similarity between the events. The probable cause of each of the accidents seemed to indicate the existence of ice accumulation on the tail-plane in each instance. Several studies were conducted and it was determined that with only a few tenths of a millimeter ice on the wing leading edge of a two-meter chord wing there can be an increased stall speed by as much as 20 percent. [snip]

 

Perception of a moderat to severe icing condition is largely individual. No messures are given, no numbers to go by, only your judgement as PIC. If you are in doubt, there is no doubt, AP of, fly by hand and get a feel of the aerodynamics acting on your aircraft. Keep good speed, don't change your configuration and fly out of the area of excessive ice acretion. Once in the clear, at altitude, check configuration changes and their effect. Considder reduced flap approach and landing, and check final approach configuration controlability at altitude before commencing approach and landing.

Background:

ATPL(A) CPL(H)

20 + years PIC on ATR aircraft in Scandinavia (plenty of icing conditions)

Total 43 years in the air : )

Continental Plane Activated De-Icing Equipment Early

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The de-icing equipment on a Continental Connections flight to Buffalo that crashed Thursday night was engaged 11 minutes after takeoff,Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a press briefing today.The plane was also flying on autopilot during the approach to Buffalo’s Niagara International Airport until a stall warning device activated seconds before the crash, he said.The NTSB recommends in severe icing conditions pilots switch off the autopilot to get a better feel for how the airplane is handling, Chealander said. The airline,Colgan Air, and Bombardier Inc., which built the Dash 8 Q400, also recommend turning it off in heavy ice.However, there isn’t any physical evidence severe icing conditions existed at the time of the crash.“To say that they should not have been flying on autopilot is not correct,” Chealander said during a briefing held in Amherst, New York. “Thus far, we haven’t determined it was severe icing, it doesn’t seem like it was a severe icing event.”The crew on the flight voice recorder reported “significant icing.” Chealander said investigators don’t know what that means. The term “severe icing” is an official designation. However, “significant icing” isn’t.Based on initial weather data and reports filed by other pilots flying into the airport that night, there isn’t any evidence to say the “severe icing” designation was applicable, he said.Winter Training“They viewed it as significant,” Chealander said. “We don’t know if it was severe icing. They didn’t say it was severe icing. The weather man didn’t say it was severe icing.”The pilots had winter training suggesting they engage de- icing equipment before entering icing conditions.The plane, operated under contract by Pinnacle Airlines Corp.’s Colgan Air unit for Continental Airlines Inc., crashed about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) northeast of the airport in the town of Clarence at about 10 p.m. local time. All 49 passengers and crew plus one man on the ground were killed when the flight that originated inNewark, New Jersey crashed.Flying HoursPilot Marvin Renslow, 47, had a total of 3,379 hours in the air, Chealander said. Renslow had just started flying the Dash 8 aircraft in December. Renslow joined Colgan in Sept. 2005 and Shaw had been flying with the company since January 2008, according to a statement issued by the company.The plane was manufactured in April 2008 and went into service that month, the statement said.Chealander said the stall speed for the aircraft is still being determined. It depends on a number of factors including the gross weight of the plane at the time of the crash.He said a device that helps the plane avoid stalls in icy conditions was engaged.Chealander said in the final seconds of flight, the airplane went through a series of up-and-down jerking motions and side-to-side rolls.Right after that, the so-called stick pusher activating the nose of the aircraft rose to about 31 degrees, according to information recovered from the flight data recorder. The stick pusher will drop the nose of the aircraft in order to gain speed and avoid a stall.Chealander said he wouldn’t comment on whether the sudden rise of the nose was caused by a pilot reaction to the stick pusher sending the plane into a dive. Following the nose of the airplane going up, the plane then went down to a 45 degree angle.The plane then rolled about 46 degrees to the left followed by 105 degrees to the right, putting the aircraft onto its side.He said passengers and crew experienced about 2 Gs of force. One G, or gravitational pull, is what a person standing still would experience.The last radar hit showed the aircraft was at an altitude of about 900 feet traveling at about 100 knots (115 miles per hour). Radar also indicated the plane fell from 1,800 to 1,000 feet in five seconds, Chealander said.

 

• Filed under: DHC-8, Continental Airlines, Colgan Air, DHC-8-Q400

Earlier photo of N200WQ from Liberty Int'l Airport.

http://www.airpics.net/photo/N200WQ-De-Havilland-Canada-DHC-8-400Q-Dash-8-Continental-Connection/5271

Domus71

• Filed under: Continental, N200WQ