Continental Flight 3407
The American aviation industry miraculously avoided any loss of life in two recent airline crashes, Continental Flight 1404 in December of 2008 in Denver, and US Airways Flight 1549 which landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. The occupants of Continental Flight 3407 which crashed in a Buffalo, New York suburb on February 12, 2009 were not as fortunate. Although it is too early to pinpoint the exact cause of the crash, a strong number of facts point to icing issues as a contributing factor.
In 1994, an American Eagle ATR-72, Flight 4184, commuter aircraft crashed near Roselawn, Indiana. After a long, drawn out investigation, it was determined that a problem with the aircraft's pneumatic deicing boots failed to prevent the build up of ice droplets on the aircraft's wings. As a result, aileron reversal occurred, and the pilots lost control of the aircraft. Pneumatic deicing boots are rubber membranes placed on the outer surface of an aircraft's wing. When icing occurs during flight, the boots expand with compressed air. This expansion causes the ice to break up and blow away.
The Bombardier Dash 8 is a competitor of the ATR-72 and shares many of the same characteristics. Not only are both aircraft high wing turboprops, they both utilize Pratt and Whitney engines, and they both utilize deicing boots. Additionally, it has been reported that the Continental commuter was on autopilot at the time of the loss of control as was the American Eagle flight. Today, 15 years after the Roselawn crash, the FAA has still not satisfied the recommendations of the NTSB arising out of the Roselawn crash to re-examine the certification standards for deicing on "turbine-engine-driven transport category aircraft." These exact types of aircraft were involved in both the Roselawn and the Buffalo accidents.
Given the icy weather in the vicinity of the Buffalo Airport, it is possible that a problem with the aircraft's deicing system caused the pilots to lose control of Flight 3407. In fact, a pilot report (PIREP) issued around 11:00 p.m. at the Buffalo Airport indicated icing and rime. Rime is white, granular ice that has the appearance of frost build up in a freezer. On the leading edge of an aircraft wing, it can severely distort shape of the airfoil and result in decreased lift and aircraft performance. Lift is one of the four physical forces operating on an airplane while airborne.
Because attorneys from Katzman, Lampert & McClune represented several victims' families in the Roselawn, Indiana crash, they were appointed to the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee. Members of a plaintiffs' steering committee are court appointed attorneys who typically make pretrial decisions about all of the lawsuits arising out of a particular airplane crash. As a result of their role in the Roselawn litigation, our attorneys are well familiar with the performance characteristics of commuter flights like the Bombardier Dash 8, the controversial nature of the deicing systems used on such aircraft, and the failure of the FAA to institute regulatory changes in the certification of the aircraft after the problem was uncovered in the Roselawn investigation.
