Buffalo air crash likely pilot error: investigators

Pilot error was the possible cause of an airline crash into a house near Buffalo, N.Y., last year, but the accident's root problems extend far beyond a single occasion, a federal protection panel said Tuesday.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board, Deborah Hersman, said the accident casts doubt on whether or not regional airlines are held to the similar level of safety as are major airlines, and she promised the board will chase the issue.

She also criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for taking too long to address security problems raised by the crash, saying the similar issues have turned up before.

Today is Groundhog Day, and I feel like we are in that movie, Hersman said, referring to the 1993 Bill Murray movie about a Pittsburgh weatherman who frequently lives through the similar day.

We have complete recommendations time after time after time. They haven't been heeded by the FAA.

The FAA said in a statement that it has driven important improvements in pilot professionalism, training and backdrop checks in the past year. The agency said it will soon propose new rules to prevent pilot exhaustion, further improve training and augment the qualifications required to be an airline pilot.

The three-member board agreed unanimously that an unsuitable response by the captain of Continental Connection Flight 3407 to a key piece of safety gear caused the crash. The board also said an wrong airspeed entered into the plane's computers by the flight's first officer and the air carrier's inadequate procedures and training for entering airspeeds for freezing weather were causal factors.

The board discussed issuing more than 20 protection recommendations as a result of the accident.

Hersman praised FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt for initiating rule changes in response to the collide on Feb.

12, 2009, when the plane dove into a house, killing all 49 people aboard and one man in the house. But Hersman said Babbitt has been not capable so far to push reforms across the finish line and that congressional deed may be needed.

Flight 3407, operated for Continental Airlines by Colgan Air Inc., was forthcoming Buffalo-Niagara International Airport when the twin-engine Bombardier turboprop skilled an aerodynamic stalls and went into a dive. The board said Capt. Marvin Renslow should have been capable to recover from the stall but that he did the opposite of what he should have done.

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