Plane that crashed in Buffalo was on autopilot

[Horse with no Name]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_re_us/plane_into_home
>>>snip
BUFFALO, N.Y. – A federal aviation official says the plane that crashed into a house near Buffalo, killing 50 people, was on autopilot when it went down, a possible violation of airline policy in icy weather.

Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board says Colgan Air recommends pilots fly manually in icy conditions. Pilots are required to do so in severe ice.

Pilots of the doomed plane discussed "significant" ice buildup on their wings and windshield just before crashing Thursday night.

Colgan Air operates a fleet of 51 regional turboprops including Continental Connection, United Express and US Airways Express.

[EFerrari]

1. I hope they know this for sure and aren't just trying to finger the dead pilot.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. there are tubes that sample

air quality, pressure, speed, humidity, temp, in the plane. if they get clogged, autopilot becomes useless in most planes. Or so, a pilot for Japan Air was telling me. icy weather? NEVER USE autopilot.

[bottomtheweaver]

3. The question is

who put it on autopilot?

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. "who put it on autopilot?" - - - NOT ME - I swear it!!

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.
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:silly:

[bottomtheweaver]

8. Let me guess

you were at the cyber-heart fertility clinic?

;)

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. caught me

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. . . . :toast: . :toast: .:toast:

. . . . :party:

[bottomtheweaver]

11. LOL

[Occam Bandage]

16. Rahm Emanuel. nt

[peace13]

5. Double check this one. Some are saying AP report is wrong.n/t

[devilgrrl]

7. An AP report wrong? Go figure!

:sarcasm:

[Carni]

6. Planes can be on autopilot that close to landing?

I know nothing about flying (other than I hate it) but I guess I just assumed that autopilot wasn't an option when going into a landing mode! YIKES!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Some newer airplanes have an autoland feature.

In other words, they land themselves. The pilot doesn't have to touch anything except the thrust levers. The Dash-8 that crashed probably wouldn't have had that feature, but a lot of large jets like the Airbus do. It works quite well.

[remoulade]

13. It probably does, the ability to do that is actually more dependent on the airport and the crew

only a handful of airports have category III hardware for zero-zero landings and pilots must have a special endorsement to use them. It's still pretty much experimental. :-)
edit: here's a scan of one such, at Atlanta

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. CAT III isn't experimental at all, but it's true that special equipment and training is necessary.

There have to be multiple redundancies (FMCs, radio altimeters, etc.) or a HUD system. I don't know whether even the newer turboprops have this stuff, since it's pretty expensive.

[remoulade]

17. I didn't mean the technology was experimental, just that implementing it on anything like

a wide scale is. I may be wrong about the Dash 8s, but it would surprise me if they don't have the hardware that could be certified if Bombardier (or its customers) wanted to jump the hoops to do it. I think any turbine powered plane built since the early 90s has radar altimeter(s) and FMCs were used in 737s 25 years ago. They cost a lot less now than they did then even without counting inflation. :-)

[Carni]

15. Thanks for the info!

I had no idea such features existed!

[remoulade]

9. If that is true, it might be or might not be all that significant.

It's possible they had it engaged only for a couple of minutes while performing the approach checklist, tuning radios,
reviewing procedures etc. Actually from what has been reported, the maneuvers in the final minutes sound more like what might happen when the a/p is switched OFF in the event it was forcing some out of trim condition that could take the pilots by surprise.