The media makes me sick with their speculation and assumptions

These are FACTS right from the NTSB press conference

- Plane was dispatched knowing there was only light-moderate icing in the Buffalo area.

- Deicing equipment activated 11 minutes after takeoff and remained on.

- NEVER was "severe icing" ever reported by ATC for the area.

- FAA has no such regulation on not using the autopilot in icing.

- Colgan has no policy that the pilots must handfly in all icing conditions

-Bombardier has no limitation or restriction on the use of the autopilot in anything but severe icing.

-The NTSB made a recommendation to the FAA about hand flying in icing but the FAA never listens to the NTSB (see pilot fatigue) and made no regulation based on the NTSB report.

-The autopilot was disengaged by the pilot and full power was applied to try and regain altitude.

-The use of the autopilot is ENCOURAGED in bad weather to aid the crew in dealing with the high workload encountered when flying in poor weather.

The report so far is the crew did NOTHING against regs, company policy, manufactuer policy, etc.

Maybe the media can stop smearing the names of these good people.

 

I stopped watching the news on this because they just upset me...

 

The media is just a bunch of idiots when it comes to aviation. In regards to this accident I have heard three things that show the media incompetence:

"the aircraft flew into PRIME icing....." uh you mean RIME icing.

When they were playing back the ATC tapes they subtitled one aircraft as saying "we don't have them on our D-cas. Uh you mean TCAS??


And in the paper...".the aircraft was trying to do a 180 maneuver which helps get rid of the icing per the textbook". Um here I think some bonehead read that if you fly into icing do a 180 and get the hell out of it.

Media = morons

 

Other facts released:

Maximum aircraft attitudes:

31 degrees nose up
45 degrees nose down
46 degrees of bank to the left
105 degrees of bank to the right

Aircraft felt between 0.75 and 2.0g's.

And I'm sure you heard the 800ft drop in 5 seconds (about 10,000fpm).

You are correct. The pilots did nothing wrong as far as utilizing the autopilot. However, I would not be surprised if, as a result of this accident, more aircraft companies and airlines, if not the FAA, will restrict the use of the autopilot during moderate-severe icing.

Aviation is as safe as it is today, in part, due to previous accidents where new policies were recommended by the NTSB. I think this might fall in that category.

 

That is how the FAA operates. The NTSB makes recommendations all the time and the FAA pays no mind until something happens.

The point I want the media to realize is that Marvin and Rebecca did nothing against any regulation or policy

 

I liked the whole conversation they had about one possible cause being carburetor icing. Wow, they might have narrowed it down there. Even my wife picked up on that one.

 

Wow...not that it has anything to do with this accident but I taught aerobatics and upset recovery and have been in and through every range of attitudes. The fact that they went through all of those ranges in around 20 seconds is just crazy. They mentioned it went up 31 degrees first (initial T/O climb is 10) and then pitched down 45 degrees and then rolled at one point past vertical and approached inverted.

I can not even imagine what was going through their heads, so tragic..surreal. I take comfort in the fact though that knowing they went down fighting to the end.

I wish they would hurry with the investigation so we can all know what happened to cause the plane to not only stall but lose complete control along all axis.

 

I don't think so, I know at one regional the powers that be are scared of us having the autopilot off in IMC. I've gotten "corrected" in recurrent for removing during in ILS.

 

I sent an e-mail a second ago to MSNBC about their headline about the AutoPilot being on and that this was an "error" on the part of the crew. Absolutely unbelievable. They are slandering the crew of 3407 and need to recant the story and issue an apology immediately. They ought to stick to the facts and nothing else.

As many people on here as possible should take a few minutes and send MSNBC an e-mail. We all know they are imbeciles, but this is absolutely intolerable news reporting.

 

Of course the media are idiots! The experts I have seen so far on CNN did not seem all that bright to me. The problem with the media is not the media but rather the 24 hour new consumer who wants an answer and wants it now. An NTSB investigation requires a significant amount of time to complete. I would nearly bet my next paycheck that when the NTSB releases its final report, it won't so much as make the news ticker on CNN. By that time, the public will have forgotten. It is better that way, in my opinion, because the NTSB is not there to inform the public as much as help us learn how to prevent this in the future.