Flt 3407 Rocked Like A Roller Coaster Before Fall
Flight 3407 Rocked Like A Roller Coaster Before Fall
Feb 16,5:02 PM EST
by Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Seats are upright. Belts are buckled. Trays are up. Flight 3407 is beginning its descent to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. And then something suddenly goes terribly wrong.
The 44 passengers are lifted from their seats - like on a roller coaster - very abruptly and repeatedly. Simultaneously, they are forcefully jostled from side to side.
But the severe pitches and rolls that jerked the plane's nose down, up and then down again from 31 degrees to 45 degrees while rolling violently from side to side, once as much as 105 degrees and almost onto the plane's back - would have ended within 20 seconds when the plane hit the ground.
Pilots and experts say a sense of panic was likely setting in among passengers on the turboprop Continental commuter plane, but they probably did not have time to realize they were crashing.
"Just panic. They were feeling things they've never felt before, but it wouldn't have been: `We're going down. We're going down,'" said Skip Moshner, a pilot and instructor for the type of plane that crashed Thursday night in Clarence, N.Y., barely three minutes from touchdown.
"Nobody suffered in this crash," Moshner said.
Passengers may have first noticed something was awry minutes before the pitching and rolling.
At about 16,000 feet, the pilot reported haze to the control tower and asked to descend.
As the aircraft passed through clouds, it encountered ice and likely shook from turbulence in the mist and snow, Moshner said. The plane's deicers would have broken up the ice, the wind flinging it off the wings and propellers, knocking chunks of it against the side of the aircraft, loud enough for passengers to hear.
"That would be alarming in significant ice if you hadn't heard it before, but it's routine," Moshner said.
The plane continued its descent. The landing gear was brought down and flaps were opened to 5 degrees at about 2,000 feet. As the pilot tried to open the flaps further - somewhere between 10 and 15 degrees - the control yoke shook in his hand, indicating the plane was losing lift.
Then, it indicated he was going to stall - an aerodynamic phenomenon that means something such as ice has corrupted the wings or tail, or possibly both, making the plane unbalanced and unable to fly.
"The plane's out of control so it's banking over. It may feel like it's upside-down," said Moshner, who as a flight simulator instructor often mimics similar circumstances for his students so they know what a crash or loss of control would feel like.
"It's going to feel like you're rolling over or you're upside-down. You may be vertical or 90 degrees on your side, but it's going to feel like you're upside-down," he said. "The drinks are probably going flying. Anything loose is going to be airborne."
Still, looking out the window would not have helped a passenger determine exactly what was happening to the aircraft because it was dark and the weather was bad, said John Hansman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who specializes in flight safety.
Then, the plane dropped 800 feet in just five seconds.
Passengers would have felt like the bottom was dropping out. The plane rolled right and pitched down once more, facing away from the airport.
"Adrenaline and fear factor take over and then it's over," Moshner said.
It lasted only 15 to 30 seconds, but the episode is likely to be studied for decades.
"It takes longer to describe it than the whole incident occurred. Pitch up, pitch down, roll, roll, pitch up, roll and it's done, that quick," Moshner said.
Flight 3407 Rocked Like A Roller Coaster Before Fall
Feb 16,5:02 PM EST
by Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Seats are upright. Belts are buckled. Trays are up. Flight 3407 is beginning its descent to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. And then something suddenly goes terribly wrong.
The 44 passengers are lifted from their seats - like on a roller coaster - very abruptly and repeatedly. Simultaneously, they are forcefully jostled from side to side.
But the severe pitches and rolls that jerked the plane's nose down, up and then down again from 31 degrees to 45 degrees while rolling violently from side to side, once as much as 105 degrees and almost onto the plane's back - would have ended within 20 seconds when the plane hit the ground.
Pilots and experts say a sense of panic was likely setting in among passengers on the turboprop Continental commuter plane, but they probably did not have time to realize they were crashing.
"Just panic. They were feeling things they've never felt before, but it wouldn't have been: `We're going down. We're going down,'" said Skip Moshner, a pilot and instructor for the type of plane that crashed Thursday night in Clarence, N.Y., barely three minutes from touchdown.
"Nobody suffered in this crash," Moshner said.
Passengers may have first noticed something was awry minutes before the pitching and rolling.
At about 16,000 feet, the pilot reported haze to the control tower and asked to descend.
As the aircraft passed through clouds, it encountered ice and likely shook from turbulence in the mist and snow, Moshner said. The plane's deicers would have broken up the ice, the wind flinging it off the wings and propellers, knocking chunks of it against the side of the aircraft, loud enough for passengers to hear.
"That would be alarming in significant ice if you hadn't heard it before, but it's routine," Moshner said.
The plane continued its descent. The landing gear was brought down and flaps were opened to 5 degrees at about 2,000 feet. As the pilot tried to open the flaps further - somewhere between 10 and 15 degrees - the control yoke shook in his hand, indicating the plane was losing lift.
Then, it indicated he was going to stall - an aerodynamic phenomenon that means something such as ice has corrupted the wings or tail, or possibly both, making the plane unbalanced and unable to fly.
"The plane's out of control so it's banking over. It may feel like it's upside-down," said Moshner, who as a flight simulator instructor often mimics similar circumstances for his students so they know what a crash or loss of control would feel like.
"It's going to feel like you're rolling over or you're upside-down. You may be vertical or 90 degrees on your side, but it's going to feel like you're upside-down," he said. "The drinks are probably going flying. Anything loose is going to be airborne."
Still, looking out the window would not have helped a passenger determine exactly what was happening to the aircraft because it was dark and the weather was bad, said John Hansman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who specializes in flight safety.
Then, the plane dropped 800 feet in just five seconds.
Passengers would have felt like the bottom was dropping out. The plane rolled right and pitched down once more, facing away from the airport.
"Adrenaline and fear factor take over and then it's over," Moshner said.
It lasted only 15 to 30 seconds, but the episode is likely to be studied for decades.
"It takes longer to describe it than the whole incident occurred. Pitch up, pitch down, roll, roll, pitch up, roll and it's done, that quick," Moshner said.
