ABSTRACT
On February 12, 2009, Colgan Air (operating as Continental Connection) Flight 3407 crashed near its destination in Buffalo, NY, claiming all 50 lives on board. Since the crash occurred in wintry conditions, icing on the wings was a hypothesis that immediately came to many minds in explaining the crash. However, as the investigation methodically proceeded, what emerged was the story of a response to an impending stall that went contrary to pilot training. According to the Executive Summary of the NTSB’s aircraft accident report:
Actions (or inactions) on the part of the first officer exacerbated the seriousness of the captain’s incorrect actions, and succeeded only in accelerating the plane’s trajectory into a doomed, fatal stall.
