As Beatty Said..."There's Something Wrong with Our Planes, Today!"

[Marshal Murat]

U.S. Plane crashes into home (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090213/D96AKSVO0.html)


A commuter plane "basically dove" into a house while coming in for a landing, sparking a fiery explosion that killed all 48 people on board and one person on the ground, an emergency official said Friday.

It was the first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in the U.S. in 2 1/2 years.

Wat is going so wrong? I'm betting Octosquids.

[Husar]

Well, what is going wrong with all those car crashes?


There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes.

http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html

and people complain about 49 airplane victims in two and a half years...

[Gregoshi]

Strange, but last month's successful crash landing on the Hudson River gave me a false sense that crashes are avoidable. Reality strikes back. :shame::shame:

[KukriKhan]

It's being reported (by CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/13/plane.crash.victims/)), that one of the victims was a widow of a 9/11 victim, enroute to some memorial service.

Irony.

[Hooahguy]

not only that, its friday the 13th...

[Ronin]

not only that, its friday the 13th...


that´s it! Jason brought the plane down!!!


KiLL KiLL KiLL KiLL Ah Ah Ah Ah... KiLL KiLL KiLL KiLL Ah Ah Ah Ah

[Hosakawa Tito]

The crash happened in a suburb within 30 miles of where I live. A turbo-prop commuter plane making it's final leg from Newark, NJ to the Buffalo, NY airport. Many of the people will be residents, family, friends of the WNY area or business people who travel here frequently. Two people are with the Jazz artist, Chuck Mangioni, for a performance in Buffalo. The NTSB isn't confirming how it happened yet and rightly so, but info from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder seem to indicate that severe and sudden icing caused the plane to invert and nose-dive into the house. Icing changes the aerodynamic shape and properties of the wing surface causing the plane to stall, at low altitude and landing speed there's no time or enough space to recover.The relatively small impact area, only the single house among a group of homes was hit, appears to indicate that the plane hit at a steep angle 6 miles short of the runway. One occupant in the house is presumed to have died on impact. His wife and daughter miraculously survived with minor injuries though the house was completely destroyed. The wreck burned for over 12 hours, due to a ruptured natural gas line, so human remains will be like those at the WTO. The woman referred to by Kukri lost her husband in the WTO tragedy in 2001. Her husband was from Buffalo and she had dedicated a University scholarship at his alma-mater after his death. She was coming to Buffalo for that ceremony from D.C. after meeting with President Obama last week to air her concerns on the closing of Gitmo. The actual confirmed dead are 44 passengers, 4 crew, 1 off-duty pilot hitching a ride, 1 person on the ground. We had it on a local radio station all day at work. A very heartwrenching story. 50 dead people, most with ties to the WNY area will leave a large footprint of pain and loss in this community.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

It's winter - why weren't the de-icing switches on? Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but in FSX I always flick those switches before taking off in winter. Do commercial pilots not always keep those switches on in winter?

[Fragony]

This is no fun :shame:

[Husar]

This is no fun :shame:

Absolutely, my post above was not to say this isn't sad, I just meant it does not mean that airplanes are generally less safe than anything else.

[KukriKhan]

It's winter - why weren't the de-icing switches on? Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but in FSX I always flick those switches before taking off in winter. Do commercial pilots not always keep those switches on in winter?

Apparently, they were (de-icing switches).

God: bless and hold those folks in the palm of your hand, and comfort the families. :bow: rip

@Husar: I know you had no frivolous intent, my friend.

@HoskawaTito: thanks for the info.

[Hosakawa Tito]

It's winter - why weren't the de-icing switches on?

According to the flight data recorder the switches were in the on position. However, there is no evidence if the de-icing devices, rubber surfaces on the wing edge that inflate/deflate to break off ice, were working. There was a report that the plane had been delayed in NJ due to a maintenance problem & bad weather, but no subsequent report on what the maintenance trouble was or if it was true. The plane is a new model manufactured in 2006 and rated for use in known icing situations. The data recorders are quite sophisticated too, and are giving a lot of crucial info.

The weather has been quite wild here since early Thursday morning, remnants of the tornados in Oklahoma. We had winds of 65+ mph at 3am Thursday and throughout that day. I lost power from 6am till 8pm Thursday night and there was much flooding due to quickly melting snow and ice jammed creeks & rivers. Thursday evening it began to snow and we got about 3-4 inches around the same time that plane crashed.

[Devastatin Dave]

Well, what is going wrong with all those car crashes?



http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html

and people complain about 49 airplane victims in two and a half years...

Exactly... Plus, more plans more deaths. Nothing wrong with the planes today, in fact there even safer than they were 10 years ago.

[Hosakawa Tito]

More updates on the crash. Buffalo, NY 2/15/09 (http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/579991.html)

“If the pilot had only another thousand feet, he might have come out of it,” the official said, shaking his head in despair at what can never be changed.


And what he and other workers could not help noticing is that what was left of the plane’s fuselage was pointed away from the direction of Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga, an indication of how out of control the plane was in its last seconds of flight.

It appears the plane pancaked into the ground, pointed in the opposite direction it was traveling. The pilot almost regained control...but almost wasn't quite good enough. Looking at the pics it's a miracle the surrounding houses were hardly damaged from the impact or fire. Kudos to the emergency response people for containing the scope of this tragedy.

Preventable tragedy? (http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/579988.html) You be the judge. I have flown turbo-props many times, and probably have been on this very same plane. The ride can be bumpy at times, is always loud, but is generally cheaper and can land at small regional airports which is the biggest attraction for me. Seems that flying in winter icing conditions has been a known hazard with these planes. Something to keep in mind for those that utilize this type of transport. The lawyers are going to have a field day with this one.