If I remember, the NTSB/ALPA was unhappy with the fact the wing has zero washout built in, same angle of incidence at the tip and at the root. Nasty stalls and even worse recoveries. To meet certification requirements the shaker/pusher system was installed. In the Comair Detroit crash, the airplane was on autopilot, at 156 kts, clean config, dirty with ice, and in a 25 degree banked turn. When the autopilot could not recover from the turn (plane starting to stall) and reached the limit of its authority, it disconnected by design. This gave the crew a stalled, iced, slow, heavy airplane in IMC, and we know the rest. It was never determined for sure if the deice boots were activated.
ALPA produced a large report about this accident that was, for the most part, ok considering the fact they were trying to remove most of the blame from the crew and place it on the Brasilian FAA, Comair training, Embraer,and our FAA. The plane received even more attention after Comair almost lost another one off the Florida coast for similar reasons. The "fix" is now all the "deice" systems are treated as "anti-ice" systems. See a cloud and its cold? Turn everything on and leave it. Crews should always have minimum manuvering speeds in mind and its a shame people had to die to make the point. How does that saying go about regs written in blood?
After 4000 hours in this beast, I believe its gotten a bad rap for two reasons. Weak quill shafts in the prop early in its life and lackluster airmanship by pilots in the ice. Every plane has its weaknesses, this plane in no exception.
Fly safe.
