Plane Plummeted 20 Times Faster Than Normal

Flight 3407 transcript released ahead of public hearing

(AP) - Just seconds before the worst US air crash in more than 7 years, the pilot exclaimed "Jesus Christ" and moments later his first officer screamed as Flight 3407 plunged to the ground. A cockpit voice-recorder transcript released today shows that only minutes before the Feb. 12 crash outside Buffalo, Captain Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw chatted about her career and shared their fear of flying in icy weather. More»

(NEWSER) - The first lawsuit involving the crash of Continental Flight 3407 contends that the turboprop airplane should not have been flying at all in icy conditions, the Buffalo News reports. The “antiquated de-icing boots,” said a lawyer filing suit on behalf of Cantor Susan A. Wehle, “are 1920s, 1930s technology, which has not been brought up to date in any revolutionary way.” More»

(NEWSER) - The Continental turboprop plane that crashed last night near Buffalo, killing 50, was likely brought down by icing, MSNBC reports. The NTSB, which has recovered the cockpit voice recorder, said the crew talked about “significant ice buildup, ice on the windshield and wings” before crashing into a suburban neighborhood. Other planes in the area also reported ice buildup around the time of the crash. More»

Submarine sent to probe ocean floor

(NEWSER) - Rescuers are hot on the track of signals picked up deep in the Atlantic that could be from one of Air France Flight 447's black boxes, Le Monde reported today, but a French official denied that the signals could be originating from the doomed plane's flight recorder. “The black boxes have not been detected,” the official tells the AP. While Le Monde says a submarine was sent to investigate, a source tells Reuters it wasn’t “the first time sounds had been heard.” More»

Their training, experience is under scrutiny

(NEWSER) - Pilot error, not icing, appears to have caused the Continental Airlines crash in Buffalo that killed 50 people Feb. 12, an investigation report released today states. When a warning device alerted pilots they were flying too slowly, they pulled the plane’s nose up—rather than down, as pilots are trained to do—and disrupted airflow above the wings, reports USA Today. More»