Wreckage crews have recovered both Pratt & Whitney PW150 engines of the Colgan Air Q400 that crashed outside Buffalo last Thursday, and preliminary inspection shows a condition “consistent with high-powered flight” when the airplane hit the ground, according to NTSB member Steven Chealander. Meanwhile, Chealander said the NTSB will send questionnaires to “every pilot that flew that night” in the Buffalo area to try to find conditions that could have led to such a violent upset. That, he added, would take several weeks, and the investigation, in total, up to a year.
Operating as Continental Connection flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., to Buffalo Niagra International Airport, the 74-seat turboprop carried 45 passengers and four on-duty crewmembers when, after the airplane descended to about 2,300 feet, air traffic control lost contact with the pilots. FDR data shows that the Q400 pitched up at an angle of 31 degrees, then down to 45 degrees, followed by a 46-degree roll to the left, then a 105 degree roll to the right. The airplane fell the last 800 feet in five seconds, before crashing virtually flat onto a single house in the suburban town of Clarence Center, N.Y., killing one of the residents. Two other residents escaped with minor injuries.
