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00:00We're in a dive! We're in a dive!
00:03A commuter flight to Detroit
00:05Come on! Get out of me, for God's sake!
00:07ends in a harrowing spiral.
00:14Tremendous destruction of the aircraft,
00:16and it was a very severe impact.
00:19Whatever happened, happened in a heartbeat.
00:21Close analysis of flight data
00:23Ice protection. Standard 7.
00:25leads to a stunning realization.
00:27It's Roselawn alone again.
00:30What doomed flight 3272
00:32is a danger the industry has known about for years.
00:38Why would you win?
00:39In aviation, myths die hard.
00:42To fulfill their mission,
00:44investigators confront some of aviation's biggest players.
00:48It was time to break that myth.
00:55Ace! Ace!
00:5626 passengers are on their way to Detroit, Michigan.
01:11aboard Comair flight 3272.
01:12The flight is a short afternoon flight.
01:14It's a short afternoon flight,
01:16operated by one of America's largest regional airlines.
01:17It's a short afternoon flight,
01:18operated by one of America's largest regional airlines.
01:20Twenty-six passengers are on their way to Detroit, Michigan, aboard Comair Flight 3272.
01:30It's a short afternoon flight, operated by one of America's largest regional airlines.
01:40The workhorse of the Comair fleet is the Embraer 120, a Brazilian-made turboprop.
01:46The airplane handled quite nicely just about every regime that you could think of that would be appropriate for the type of operation that we were doing.
01:58Dorinda Ogden has been a Comair flight attendant for five years.
02:05Here's a drink, Ken.
02:07Thank you very much for the ice.
02:10First Officer Kenneth Reese and Captain Dan Carlson have been trading piloting duties all day.
02:18This is the day's third leg, and First Officer Reese is at the controls.
02:23I flew with Kenneth two or three times.
02:27Stuart Lauer is a former Comair pilot.
02:30I found him to be a very capable pilot. He knew what he was doing.
02:36Out of Detroit, we're looking at 239 radio.
02:41Flight 3272 left from an airport near Cincinnati, Ohio, at 3.08pm.
02:48It's expected to land in Detroit just after four o'clock in the afternoon.
02:52What we want to do is just fly from point A to point B, get the passengers there safely, and not scare them to death.
03:01Heading 030 to join the arrival, Comair 3272.
03:05The crew has the plane on autopilot as they descend from 19,000 feet.
03:14Closing in on their destination...
03:16Just some bumps.
03:22They hit some unexpected turbulence.
03:25Despite the rough ride, the flight is still running on schedule.
03:34At Detroit Approach Control, Stephen Cochran guides Flight 3272 on its path to the runway.
03:41Comair 3272, Detroit Approach, heading 050, Vector to Runway 3 Right.
03:48It's another busy Thursday afternoon for the veteran controller.
03:53Detroit, Cactus 50, level of 1,000.
03:56The crew of an Airbus radios in.
03:59Cactus 50, Detroit, Roger. Expect vectors for 3 Right.
04:03The controller wants the larger Airbus to land before Comair 3272.
04:10The jet was much faster than the Comair flight, so the air traffic controller made the decision to give the jet priority over the turboprop and gave them a slower speed.
04:22Comair, maintain 190 knots, if unable, advise.
04:26Roger. 190 knots, Comair 3272.
04:30First Officer Reese reduces his speed to 190 knots to let the incoming Airbus land first.
04:41The fact that 3272 was placed behind Cactus 50 added just a little bit to the maneuvering that was required.
04:50Ladies and gentlemen, we're on our final approach to Detroit.
04:55Please fasten your seatbelts and stow away your tray tables.
05:01The turboprop should be on the runway in less than 15 minutes.
05:05Let's run the descent check.
05:15The approach phase is the busiest time from a workload standpoint for the pilot.
05:20And that's the time that he would like to have the assistance of the autopilot.
05:24Ice protection.
05:26Windshield, props.
05:28Standard 7, pressurization.
05:29As they descend towards 8,000 feet, the pilots perform a series of standard checks.
05:35Auto.
05:37As you come in to land, we go into what's called a sterile cockpit.
05:41On.
05:42There's no chit-chat, it's just strictly business.
05:45Comair 3272, reduce speed 150.
05:48The controller now wants the turboprop to reduce its airspeed to 150 knots.
05:59Comair 3272, reduce speed 150.
06:03Speed 150, Comair 3272.
06:07They always got to tell us everything twice.
06:13He's got a short-term memory disorder.
06:15Is that what that is?
06:17Yeah, that's what it is.
06:20Comair 3272.
06:22Now turn left, heading 090.
06:25Heading 090, Comair 3272.
06:28The airplane was responding properly to all the air traffic control inputs and not indicating any problem.
06:34The plane banks left as the pilots make their final turn.
06:41First Officer Reese expects the autopilot to roll the plane back to level.
06:49Looks like your low speed indicator.
06:51Yeah, I see it.
06:52Power.
06:54The captain advances the throttles to gain speed.
06:56But it doesn't work.
06:59Instead, the plane's autopilot disconnects.
07:05When the autopilot disconnected, a very sudden left roll began.
07:12Reese struggles to level the plane by hand.
07:28The amount of effort it takes to move those control surfaces,
07:31you've got to muscle it until you can get it where you want it to go.
07:36He wrenches the control column to the right, trying to correct the steep left bank.
07:42Nothing really happened. The aircraft continued rolling over to the left.
07:46We're in a dive. We're in a dive!
07:56We're in a dive!
07:57Oh, God. No!
08:03You never give up. You do what you've got to do to try to make it.
08:08You never give up. You do what you've got to do to try to make it.
08:12Come on! Get out of here, for God's sake!
08:18But there seems to be nothing the pilots can do to save their spiraling aircraft.
08:32There was virtually no controllability.
08:36Nothing can be done. They're just insufficient altitude to recover.
08:41No!
08:42No!
08:42It was a very severe impact, a tremendous destruction of the aircraft.
09:06Comair flight 3272, en route from Cincinnati to Detroit, has crashed into a field 22 miles
09:17southwest of the runway.
09:20First responders and news crews arrive at the scene.
09:25They soon discover that all 26 passengers and three crew members are dead.
09:32We like to offer our condolences to the families.
09:41Our hearts go out to those that have lost their loved ones today.
09:46The sudden loss of 29 lives leaves families and friends in anguish.
09:53How could a commercial flight on approach to a major US airport go so horribly wrong?
10:06The morning after the crash, a blackened scar on a frozen field marks the fatal impact zone
10:13of flight 3272.
10:16Families and friends attend a memorial service for the crash victims.
10:21A team from the National Transportation Safety Board is already at work recovering pieces of
10:26wreckage for analysis.
10:32God, it's cold out there.
10:47NTSB systems specialist John DeLisi faces one of the biggest challenges of his career.
10:55We knew the airplane was on approach into Detroit and something dramatic happened.
11:00Everything went wrong suddenly.
11:04What a mess.
11:05The NTSB's Richard Rodriguez leads the investigation.
11:10Our mission is to find the cause of an accident, make recommendations that will prevent it from
11:14ever happening again.
11:17Their first task is to find the airplane's black boxes and get them to a lab for analysis.
11:23We spent about eight hours that first day pulling the wreckage apart.
11:31But by late afternoon, we were able to find the cockpit force recorder and flight data recorder
11:35and got those on their way back to Washington, D.C.
11:42Let's get those both packed up.
11:45While they wait for news on the black boxes, investigators head to Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
11:53They want to hear from the last person to speak with the pilots, the approach controller.
11:58It was coming on rush hour.
12:00We had winter weather.
12:02From air traffic control, we learned that the weather was bad and airplanes were starting
12:06to pile up on their approach into Detroit.
12:09That's when American West Airlines flight 50 made contact, right after 3272.
12:14Detroit, Kansas 50 level at 12,000.
12:19So I told Calm Air pilots to slow up.
12:22Calm Air, maintain one niner zero knots if unable, advise.
12:26I made sure there was plenty of distance between them.
12:29There were other airplanes on approach to Detroit, so sometimes when they're in close proximity,
12:35there can be an issue with wake vortex coming off one airplane that may affect another.
12:41A wake vortex is a horizontal tornado that trails behind an aircraft.
12:48If one plane flies too close to the wake of another, it can encounter sudden and extreme turbulence.
12:59So, there's the Airbus, American West Airlines flight 50.
13:07The Airbus is almost twice the size of the Embraer 120.
13:11And here's our Calm Air flight 3272.
13:16Did the big jet's wake vortex knock flight 3272 out of the sky?
13:24We needed to see if the accident airplane flew underneath that one and crossing its wake.
13:31Embraer is miles back, 1,500 feet below the Airbus.
13:38Could have got caught in the wake.
13:44Give the data off to NASA and let's see what they think.
13:50A wake vortex incident seems possible.
13:53Oh, God.
13:54But investigators won't know for certain, until experts at NASA analyze the radar data.
14:05Meanwhile, Rodriguez explores other possibilities.
14:12What happened to the propellers?
14:14He's very familiar with this type of plane, having investigated previous accidents involving the Embraer 120.
14:21The Embraer 120 propeller blade had separated due to a fatigue crack over in an accident earlier in Georgia.
14:31The crew was able to land it, but it was very difficult to control.
14:36In two previous cases, part of a propeller blade broke off in mid-flight.
14:42Could it have happened again?
14:43If they were barely able to control the aircraft, this could have been a problem for the 3272.
14:52Rodriguez reviews details of whether two propellers were found at the Detroit crash site.
14:57He makes a worrying discovery.
15:00Part of one blade ended up 75 feet away from the main impact crater.
15:06He can't help but wonder, is this the third time he's seen an Embraer 120 propeller fail?
15:12We need to take a look at those propeller blades.
15:16We wanted to get those blades of the propeller to ensure they were intact at impact.
15:30Rodriguez studies the blade fragment, looking for evidence that they failed.
15:34If the propeller blades were all attached and spinning at impact,
15:41they would have all hit the ground with tremendous force,
15:45resulting in distinctive damage on every blade.
15:51This is impact damage.
15:53We're spinning right to the end.
15:56The analysis leaves no doubt.
15:58Though the propellers fragmented when they hit the ground,
16:01they did not fail in flight.
16:03We were able to tell that nothing broke off the airplane during the flight path.
16:09Just as investigators rule out one possible cause,
16:13they uncover another intriguing clue.
16:18Richard.
16:19What'd you find?
16:25It's the engine fire lever.
16:29Looks like it's been pulled.
16:31This is a lever that a crew member would grab and pull and twist if one of the engines was on fire.
16:43It's a discovery that has frightening implications.
16:47So, we looking at an engine fire here?
16:50NTSB investigators explore a disturbing theory as they try to figure out why Comair flight 3272 plunged from the sky.
17:11It looks like one of the pilots pulled an engine fire shutoff lever.
17:17The crew may have been fighting an in-flight fire.
17:21In-flight fire.
17:21In-flight fire would probably be at a higher temperature than ground fire, so you would have some, perhaps, a disintegration or disappearance of the metal in the engine cowling and so forth.
17:34If the fire started while the plane was moving forward, Rodriguez should find soot marks in a horizontal pattern.
17:48If it started on the ground, the flames would have gone straight up.
18:01In this case, it was relatively low temperature, all the soot patterns were vertical, there was no airstream affecting it to show in-flight fire.
18:12I'm seeing post-impact fire.
18:15There's no fire in flight, no way.
18:17But upon further examination, we realized that the extended position of that handle was just a result of the hard crush damage that occurred.
18:32With engine fire ruled out, investigators turned to NASA analysis of airport radar data.
18:40Perhaps there's evidence that the small turboprop flew too close to a big jet.
18:47And that settles that.
18:49But it's another dead end.
18:51It wasn't a wake vortex.
18:53The analysis reveals that the wake from American Airlines Flight 50 could not have dropped to the altitude of Comair 3272.
19:04Investigators are back where they started.
19:08Why 29 people died just minutes before landing is still a mystery.
19:17They finally have access to the information stored on the plane's flight data recorder.
19:25Left engine, please.
19:28It should give them important details on how the aircraft was performing.
19:32Now the right engine.
19:33Right up to the moment of impact.
19:37Here it's starting.
19:38The engine's a guzzling fuel.
19:41The speed stays the same.
19:43The data reveals a puzzling detail.
19:46Just before the plane's sudden upset, the engines were working hard, but to little effect.
19:52The flight data recorder indicated that the aircraft had received significant degradation in the performance.
20:00Look what's happening here.
20:03Autopilot is on.
20:05Turn is done.
20:07Should level off here.
20:09But it doesn't.
20:11Keeps rolling.
20:12What really jumped out at us was the airplane continued to roll, even though the autopilot was commanding it to go back to wings level.
20:25Something's holding the engine's back.
20:29As Rodriguez studies the data, he thinks he knows what may be causing the loss of performance.
20:374,000 feet, and it falls from the sky.
20:45It has all the hallmarks of something he's seen before.
20:53Roselawn all over again.
20:56In October 1994, the pilots of American Eagle Flight 4184 suddenly lost control of their twin turbo prop.
21:07It plummeted from the sky and crashed near the town of Roselawn, Indiana.
21:15All 68 people aboard were killed.
21:20The cause was a phenomenon known as icing, where a buildup of ice on the wings leads to an aerodynamic stall.
21:28When that happens, you're not producing the lift that you're supposed to.
21:33The loss of lift is what the word stall is pertaining to.
21:39When we stall the wing, we lose lift.
21:42Following the Roselawn accident, the FAA was very concerned about the performance of turboprop aircraft in icing conditions.
21:53The Federal Aviation Administration was so concerned that it conducted full-scale tests,
22:01flying a turboprop in supercool precipitation sprayed from a water tanker.
22:05They found that the aircraft did accumulate ice on the top of the wing to generate significant drag.
22:15The flight test's most dramatic finding was that a layer of ice as thin as a sheet of sandpaper could cause major problems for pilots.
22:24And we were very surprised to see that a trace amount of ice was enough to affect the aerodynamics and possibly cause a wing to lose lift.
22:36In March 2001, a turboprop suffered severe icing and plummeted 8,000 feet before the captain managed to regain control.
22:45That captain was Stuart Lauer.
22:49I had the shakes. Something fierce. I mean, the adrenaline was flowing.
22:53Just like Stuart Lauer's flight.
22:56It's a yellow speed indicator.
22:57Yeah, I see it.
22:58Comair 3272 dropped from the sky in an instant.
23:02It's very complex aerodynamically, especially when there's ice contamination on the airplane.
23:07At that point, it's very hard to recover unless you gain airspeed.
23:14And the only way to do that is point the nose to the ground.
23:17Not something that a pilot wants to do while trying to recover an airplane.
23:25Come on! Get out of there, for God's sake!
23:27Go!
23:30We're in a dive! We're in a dive!
23:33Oh!
23:34I was lucky.
23:36I had plenty of altitude.
23:39It took me over 7,000 feet to regain control of the aircraft.
23:46They didn't have it. They only had four.
24:01Okay, let's see what they flew through.
24:03Investigators need to learn all they can about the weather conditions the Comair pilots faced as they approached Detroit.
24:13Okay, let's pull up the weather data.
24:15They know that for ice to build up on the wings of a plane...
24:21Now, let's see the flight path.
24:23...temperature, precipitation, and aircraft speed must all fall within a very specific range.
24:28The weather data began to paint a picture of an airplane that was on approach flying in what were considered light icing conditions.
24:38Cactus 50, be advised, there are slick runways and poor visibility, how is it up there?
24:43According to Detroit controllers, other aircraft, including the flight directly in front of Comair 32-72, reported icing conditions.
24:53Yeah, it's 237 at 32-32 up here, moderate icing with the possibility of freezing drizzle.
25:00Roger that.
25:01Comair 32-72, how is it up there?
25:05Strangely, the Comair pilots never mentioned icing at all.
25:10Comair 32-72, uh, just a little turbulence, but that's all.
25:14It definitely flew through icing conditions.
25:23Investigators know that even a thin layer of ice can be dangerous.
25:27Perhaps the Comair pilots didn't see ice on their wings.
25:33The Embraer is probably a good 20 feet from the cockpit window back to the top of the wing, where the ice would be forming.
25:41So, it's very difficult to see in poor lighting conditions as 32-72 is operating in cloud and, uh, late in the afternoon.
25:50But there's something that doesn't add up.
25:57If the Comair pilots lost control due to ice buildup, why were they the only ones affected by the weather?
26:04None of the other airplanes that were on approach to Detroit experienced any problems.
26:09So, we needed to look hard about what was unique about this airplane.
26:18NTSB investigators are now certain that Comair flight 32-72 flew through icing conditions.
26:25What they don't know is if those conditions were severe enough to bring down the plane.
26:30We wanted to understand what role icing played in the slow and steady left roll that the airplane seemed to be experiencing.
26:39In search of answers, they visit a NASA test facility.
26:44Here, they can see with their own eyes how and when ice would have formed on the wings of flight 32-72.
26:51We were helping the NTSB identify potential ice shapes and what those ice shapes could do to the flight characteristics.
27:05Tom Ratvasky is a NASA researcher.
27:11A section of a wing is installed in a wind tunnel.
27:14We were able to get our hands on an actual EMB-120 wing section.
27:21Let's initiate.
27:26Temperature and wind speed set.
27:28The temperature has cooled down to match the flight condition.
27:31The fan has turned on to get the speed to match the flight condition.
27:35Okay, let's add the precipitation.
27:36There's also a spray bar system, which introduces the liquid water into that airstream.
27:47The test simulates the exact conditions faced by flight 32-72.
27:58Slowly, almost imperceptibly, ice begins to accumulate on the wing.
28:06Even in a lighted wind tunnel, it was very difficult to see.
28:13The type of ice that was accreted was relatively clear.
28:17It was very rough.
28:19Ice reshapes the wing surface, so these aerodynamic surfaces aren't doing what they're supposed to do.
28:27Can we get some measurements, please?
28:29The test leaves little doubt.
28:35A thin but dangerous layer of ice almost certainly formed on the wings of flight 32-72.
28:42NASA gave us ironclad knowledge that the accumulation of thin amounts of ice was very dangerous and troublesome to the pilot and to the aircraft.
28:54Thanks for your help with us.
29:00Thanks.
29:01But there's still something about the Comair crash that the NASA test doesn't explain.
29:10The Embraer 120, like most commercial planes, has anti-icing and de-icing systems for winter weather flying.
29:19Investigators need to know if the pilots activated those systems.
29:29You guys ready?
29:32Let's play it.
29:34They turned to the cockpit voice recorder.
29:38Let's run the descent check.
29:42Ice protection.
29:44Windshield.
29:46Props.
29:47Standard 7.
29:48The pilots are required to go through an approach checklist.
29:53One of the items on that approach checklist is the Standard 7, which is the various anti-icing facilities that they have on the aircraft.
30:04The anti-icing system electrically heats the windshield and the propellers.
30:10But for the wings, there's a different system.
30:12One that relies on mechanical devices called de-icing boots.
30:16The boots are made of rubber and are part of the leading edge of the wings.
30:22When activated, they inflate and expand to crack off any accumulated ice.
30:27The ice is just hard enough that the ice is just hard enough that it cracks and the airstream blows it away.
30:33Pressurization.
30:35It's reset for our landing in Detroit.
30:38Rodriguez listens, waiting for the pilots to activate the de-icing boots.
30:43Landing lights.
30:45Landing lights on.
30:47Crossfeed.
30:49Crossfeed's off.
30:50That completes that.
30:54Cover everything but activating the boots.
30:56What gives?
30:59There was no discussion to indicate that they were concerned about icing on the aircraft.
31:07Do you have the pre-flight documents?
31:09Investigators want to know why the pilots didn't activate an onboard system that could have saved their plane.
31:18They check dispatch records.
31:20Maybe the crew was never briefed on the weather conditions they'd face.
31:24The flight had received their papers for dispatch from Cincinnati, which included warnings about icing in the Detroit area.
31:35Could be some ice in our path.
31:37What a shock.
31:38Ice in January.
31:46They knew they were going to hit ice, but then never popped the boots.
31:49The de-ice boots did not appear to have been activated, so we really wanted to take a good, hard look at when that system should be used and why it wasn't used on this approach.
32:10NTSB investigators know Flight 3272 flew through dangerous icing conditions.
32:16They also know that the pilots never activated a critical de-icing system, but they don't know why.
32:23They should have been aware there was icing taking place.
32:27They certainly had to suspect it.
32:33The pilots' work records reveal that Captain Carlson was a seven-year veteran with Comair.
32:40He even helped write pilot training procedures for the airline.
32:46The captain was known as a by-the-book type of pilot.
32:51First officer Kenneth Reese was an equally proficient pilot, who was also a certified flight instructor.
32:58These pilots were well-trained and had plenty of experience flying in from Midwest Corridor, where there's a lot of icing conditions.
33:10So if ice is just beginning to form on your wing, what would you do?
33:16Investigators contact other Comair pilots for insight into how they would handle a similar scenario.
33:21We were getting feedback that they'd wait until one quarter to one half inch of ice had accumulated before they activate the de-ice boots.
33:41That was a surprise for us to see.
33:44The revelation suggests that at Comair, outdated ideas about icing are putting pilots and passengers at risk.
33:53Why would you wait?
33:57Bridging.
33:58When de-ice boots were first invented, they inflated at a very slow pressure and stayed inflated for a while.
34:08And pilots became concerned that ice might form over the inflated shape of the boot, a phenomenon known as bridging.
34:16Ice bridging was a concern with older de-icing systems that inflated and deflated slowly.
34:22There was a risk that if pilots activated the boots too soon, ice might build up and form a shell or bridge beyond the limit of the inflated boot.
34:34That could render the de-icing system useless.
34:42Investigators know that modern de-icing boots have evolved.
34:46Bridging is no longer a problem for turboprop aircraft.
34:49The de-ice boots on this airplane inflate rapidly in less than a second, would break off any amount of ice that was accumulated and deflate again right away with vacuum suction.
35:01So de-ice boot bridging was not going to happen on this airplane.
35:08All right, let's take a look at the manuals these guys are following.
35:10We were interested in what guidance had the crew received, what instructions do they have, what are they trained to do when they're experiencing icing.
35:23Both Comair and the plane's manufacturer Embraer published flight manuals for the 120 turboprop.
35:30When investigators compare the two, they make a surprising discovery.
35:35What?
35:36What jumped out at us was that Comair was instructing their pilots to wait until a significant amount of ice had accumulated before activating the de-ice boots.
35:47That was surprising to us.
35:49Comair manual tells them to wait.
35:51The Comair manual advises pilots to wait until half an inch of ice forms before de-icing, while the Embraer manual says something completely different.
36:03Embraer says activate boots at the first sign of icing.
36:06The material with respect to the icing conditions were not clear, and they were not consistent for the pilots to know what they should be doing.
36:17Let's see what we can find.
36:20The Comair accident is the first fatal crash of an Embraer 120 caused by icing.
36:28But how many close calls have there been?
36:36Six in less than eight years.
36:42Man, oh man.
36:43There were six previous loss-of-control accidents involving icing with the Embraer, which is pretty significant.
36:52So what did the FAA do about this?
36:56It's a disturbing record of accidents.
36:59Investigators wonder what steps the FAA has taken to fix the problem.
37:03The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for setting safety standards throughout the industry.
37:20Rodriguez finds disturbing evidence in FAA files.
37:26Icing, icing, icing.
37:31Boy, they sure created a lot of reports.
37:33Comair pilots may not be the only ones who held out-of-date views about de-icing.
37:39The Federal regulators themselves may be part of the problem.
37:44I think we began to realize that we were working not against knowledge that wasn't out there.
37:49We were working against a long-thought trend in aviation that de-ice boot bridging is a concern.
37:56De-ice boot bridging was a myth.
37:58In aviation, myths die hard.
38:04It was time to break that myth.
38:12Investigators are trying to understand why Comair and Embraer provided conflicting instructions to pilots regarding icing.
38:19Digging through FAA files, they find some intriguing documents.
38:29Develop means to prevent ice formation.
38:31An FAA memo makes it clear that the regulator was concerned about icing.
38:39There's only one way to do that. Activate the boots.
38:42Activation of de-icing boots at the first sign of ice formation.
38:56Embraer knew the answer.
39:00So why were the Comair pilots still in the dark?
39:03Could be some ice in our path.
39:05What a shock. Ice in January.
39:07Investigators learned that the FAA approved the Embraer revision.
39:16But then, a critical step was missed.
39:19The regulator did not require airlines to adopt the change.
39:24Many, including Comair, did not.
39:26Why not make it mandatory?
39:29It's a no-brainer.
39:31While the FAA had a great deal of information,
39:34they never did officially sanction a standard that should be adhered to.
39:43Investigators finally understand what caused the crash of Comair flight 3272.
39:48Just before landing...
39:57Ice protection.
39:59...the pilots enter icing conditions.
40:01But the captain, following airline procedures, does not activate the de-icing boots.
40:07It's reset for landing in Detroit. Looks good.
40:10Landing lights.
40:12Landing lights.
40:12The crew seemed to be aware that they were in light icing conditions,
40:16but per the instructions in the flight manual,
40:18they were waiting until a significant amount of ice had accumulated.
40:23Comair 3272. Reduce speed 150.
40:28The controller then instructs them to reduce speed.
40:32That's getting pretty slow, and it was a concern to us.
40:37Why would they have accepted that without question?
40:39But in their manuals, there was no specific information that would tell them,
40:44do not go below a certain airspeed in the icing condition.
40:51Speed 150. Comair 3272.
40:55If you have icing on there, and you're slowing down,
41:00who knows where that stall point is?
41:03Comair 3272. Now turn left, heading 090.
41:08To make matters worse, the plane is on autopilot.
41:14Since the autopilot was engaged,
41:16they were unaware that this trace amount of ice
41:19was starting to affect their aerodynamics.
41:22When the autopilot is on,
41:24the pilot can't feel what's happening
41:28until he starts to see something on the instrument gauges.
41:32Looks like you're a low-speed indicator.
41:37The captain was the first to notice the anomaly.
41:40Yeah, I see it. Power.
41:42Thanks.
41:43But it's too late.
41:45The left wing has already stalled.
41:49The aircraft rolled rapidly to the left.
41:52They went from about 45 degrees angle of bank
41:55to the left to 140 degrees,
41:59which is basically inverted.
42:05At that point, the airplane just,
42:07it's going to do whatever it's going to do.
42:08And God help them.
42:11They're in a dive.
42:12They're in a dive.
42:12When that nose pitched straight into the ground,
42:15their fate was sealed.
42:32I'm sorry.
42:35I wish it hadn't happened.
42:36The NTSB lays blame for the accident
42:49on the Federal Aviation Administration.
42:52The agency failed to establish adequate standards
42:55for flights in icing conditions.
42:58Ultimately, we didn't believe that the FAA
43:01put forth the right leadership
43:03to help dispel the myth of de-ice boot bridging.
43:07They recommend that all pilots
43:09be informed of the need
43:10to activate the boots
43:12the moment they encounter icing conditions.
43:20In this case,
43:21we had very good pilots,
43:24a very good aircraft.
43:30It's very difficult to reconcile that
43:32when you're talking with
43:34next-of-kin.
43:40Hundreds of lives are affected.
43:46We now have information
43:48that could prevent that.
43:50in the front row of thehd
43:52and have a good CAA.
44:00seem to join us today in a way
44:01of honoring the relief
44:02of the world.
44:06Thank you, Sean.
44:08We have to join us aqui on
44:09the THIC.
44:09The Eta
44:10the Eta
44:12theв
44:13is about to
44:15are
44:17are