Co-Pilot's Family Fights Criticism

(AP)  The mother and husband of the co-pilot of the commuter plane that crashed as it approached a Buffalo airport on Friday defended her against suggestions she was an unqualified pilot who was tired, sick and distracted at the time of the deadly accident.

Rebecca Shaw's mother, Lynn Morris, said she felt that not enough was said during three days of National Transportation Safety Board hearings about how qualified and dedicated to flying her daughter was.

"I heard over and over again the issue of fatigue, the issue that she was sick. And she wasn't fatigued, she wasn't sick," Morris said.

In an interview with The Buffalo News, Morris said, "The only thing that I want out there is that my daughter was truly a professional and she was fit to fly and that she was prepared and trained and that she was a good pilot."

Shaw's husband, Troy, said his wife "was a professional pilot. She took her job extremely seriously. She loved what she was doing," he told NBC's "Today" show.

Rebecca Shaw and the captain of Continental Connection Flight 3407, Marvin Renslow, apparently didn't realize they were traveling at dangerously low speeds as the twin-engine turboprop neared Buffalo Niagara International Airport on the night of Feb. 12. The plane experienced an aerodynamic stall and plunged into a house below, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground.

Testimony during the hearings in Washington centered on pilot fatigue and failings.

The Shaws had recently moved into her parents' home near Seattle and she had flown across country overnight to Newark, N.J., to make her flight to Buffalo.

Troy Shaw said he spoke to his wife just a few hours before the ill-fated flight and "she sounded fantastic, sounded like any other time I'd talked to her when she was on the job."

Morris called her daughter "amazing" and said "she didn't take chances with her flying. The minute she got on that plane she was ready to fly. She had the training. She had the background. She had the experience."

"In my heart I know that she did everything that was humanly possible to make things come out differently," Morris said.

[rbburnerjr]

Much has been said about the low pay of the Regional pilots. My comment is "Do you feel safe flyling with someone making less than a WalMart janitor"?

[dhague]

coldasgold - "action which ultimately slows or creates more drag on a plane"

And yet all of these actions (gear, flaps, power reduction) are an absolutely normal part of configuring an aircraft for landing - and almost always wind up very close to the aircraft's stall speed.

The co-pilot was not the one flying the aircraft - and it takes experience (flying time) to develop self confidence under adverse weather conditions like icing. Normally, she would have only been flying under the supervision of the PIC (pilot in command) of the aircraft. That is one of the functions of the "co-pilot" position: picking up the knowledge, experience, and confidence to be able to handle the PIC position. As much of this on-the-job training is done by the pilot, it isn't at all uncommon for co-pilots and others receiving training to discuss their confidence (and lack thereof) with their mentors.

She was not flying the aircraft at the time of departure from controlled flight and the following crash. She was operating other controls (flaps, gear, radios), running checklists, and doing other tasks under the direct supervision of the PIC (another reason there are two rated pilots in the cockpit). The transcripts of the flight seem to indicate that she was acting effectively. Her level of self confidence (or lack thereof) is unlikely to be even relevant to the crash.

oreoweb678 - "twice misunderstood ATC transmissions". I have been in the Air Traffic Control communications business for 35 years. This is far from being an uncommon occurance.

"altitude and then the pilot pull up suddenly" - Unless the pilot felt that the aircraft was entering a "tailplane stall" (when the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer - the "tail wing") loses lift rather than the "main" wings. In this case, the correct procedure is to pull back on the stick. This phenomenon is most common in turboprop transports like the accident aircraft, and even the NASA pilots who research such things with instrumented aircraft say it can be hard to determine when it is happening and that recovering - particularly on final approach - is by no means guaranteed. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2238323060735779946

[barbaraf4]

"Co-Pilot's Family Fights Criticism"
"Fatigue, Inexperience Not Factors In Flight 3407 Crash, Mother, Husband Say"
~~~~~~~~~~~
If ahw was not experienced enough to fly under "those conditions" then she should not have been co-pilot of the plane. That failure reflects on the airline, not on the pilot.

[coldasgold]

Any action which ultimately slows or creates more drag on a plane about to stall would cause the plane to tumble or fall out the sky.....i.e. pulling the nose up, extending the landing gear, extending the flaps .... all of which were done in this case. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand this, does it?

[coldasgold]

The co-pilot herself is heard saying she didn't feel qualified and couldn't make decisions about flying in bad weather. I personally would not want my life in the hands of someone who felt like that regardless of how much sleep or rest she had prior to the flight. If someone had told me just what the airlines was paying the pilot & co-pilot, I'd refuse to get on the plane. "You get what you pay for....."

[DefendLiberty]

...except that she retracted the flaps at near stall speed without consulting the pilot, according to the testimony yesterday.

[dahizzle]

And now back to reality.....she was unqualified to fly in those conditions.

[oreoweb678]

I fully read the trascripts of the flight. The co-pilot twice misunderstood ATC transmissions. The pilot later said in a matter not to be dyslexic . The co-pilot also wanted the pilot to decend carefully because of her ears which woud indicated a cold present. The main factor is when she put the flaps down which creates drag which slows the plane down. Having the gear down only compounds the speed problem. now if the stick shaker starts after the flaps go down think its common sense your losing lift and speed. and what did they do? She raised the flaps at the low altitude and then the pilot pull up suddenly which creates more drag. This was the deadly mistake. If that is not inexperince not sure what is.

[canislupus16]

ckingfly - If I recall correctly and recognize your handle, you've commented in the past about flying stories (I guess that would be pretty much about air disasters).

Could you be so kind as to re-read your post? Did you mean what you wrote, "There is a kind of stall in icing where pulling back on the yoke is the correct choice."? NTSB and others have said the correct response to a stall is NOT to pull back.

Then you say "The pilot made a FINAL [I take it you mean ANOTHER??] mistake in a short chain of events that led to the tragedy.

Just want to know for sure if you meant your comments as written. Thanks. And feel free to expound.

I read the cockpit transcript also and it was pretty upsetting, and add the other facts about training, experience, etc.. My take is the flight was a FUBAR from the start - pilot chit-chat throughout (ESPECIALLY in the critical final minutes during an approach?!!! - in bad weather?!!! - give me a break!), missed ATC communications, apparently the pilot was yawning according to the transcript so fatigue appears to be a factor, both admittedly not very experienced if at all with icing, the record of scant training/experience, failed flight tests, etc.

Right now there is no way I'm convinced that this was unavoidable on several levels, and I doubt that whatever else comes out is going to change my mind.

[ckingfly]

Most of you posting comments here don't seem to have had a lot of experience flying airplanes, flying with ATC, flying IFR or flying in icing conditions. This tragedy probably could have been prevented if a few little things happened a little differently. Similar situations occur everyday and they come out all right. There is a kind of stall in icing where pulling back on the yoke is the correct choice.

The pilot made a final mistake in a short chain of events that led to the tragedy. The co-pilot compounded the mistake when she raised the flaps but did the right thing considering the pilot's action. They had tough jobs that no amount of government regulations or rules makes easier or better.