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BUFFALO - The commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo was on autopilot until just before it went down in icy weather, indicating that the pilot may have ignored federal safety recommendations and violated the airline's own policy for flying in such conditions, an investigator said.
Federal guidelines and the airline's own instructions suggest a pilot should not engage the autopilot when flying through ice. If the ice is severe, the company that operated Continental Flight 3407 requires pilots to shut off the autopilot.
"You may be able in a manual mode to sense something sooner than the autopilot can sense it," said Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board, which also recommends that pilots disengage the autopilot in icy conditions.
Automatic safety devices returned the aircraft to manual control just before it fell from the sky, Chealander said. He described the flight's frantic last moments, which included a steep drop and rollercoaster-like pitching and rolling.
Chealander said information from the flight data recorder indicated that the plane pitched up at an angle of 31 degrees, then pitched down at 45 degrees.
It rolled to the left at 46 degrees, then snapped back to the right at 105 degrees - 15 degrees beyond vertical.
Radar data show Flight 3407 fell from 550m above sea level to 300m in five seconds, he said. Passengers and crew would have experienced G-forces up to twice as strong as on the ground.
The plane crashed belly first onto a house in Clarence Centre, New York, on Friday, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.
The woman who with her daughter survived the terrible inferno, said yesterday that she had been watching TV and that as soon as she heard the approaching aircraft outside her windows, she knew it was in trouble.
"Planes do go over the house, but this one sounded really different, louder, and I thought to myself, 'If that's a plane it's going to hit something,"' explained Karen Wielinski.
Her husband, Doug Wielinski, had just left the sitting room for the dining room at the time of impact. He died when the aircraft struck.
For his wife and daughter, however, something close to a miracle occurred. Karen sensed disaster was near but had no time to react.
"The next thing I knew, the ceiling was on me. I didn't think I was going to get out of there. I thought, 'This is it,"' the 57-year-old told local radio.
"I was panicking a little but trying to stay cool and happened to notice a little light to the right of me.
"I shouted first in case anybody was out there, and then just pushed what was on me off and crawled out the
hole.
"The back of the house was gone, the fire had started, I could see the wing of the plane and Jill was over to the side, crying of course, hysterical."
- INDEPENDENT, AP
