While it will be at least a year before the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issues its probable cause determination on the Feb. 12 fatal crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 in Buffalo, NY, there are clear indications that atmospheric icing, specifically tail-plane icing, may have played a role in the accident that killed all 48 passengers and crew and one man on the ground.

One aviation expert believes that there can be something positive resulting from the tragic Buffalo crash----that being a new awareness of how unforgiving a tailplane stall can be.

Lori Brown is a faculty specialist lecturer in the Department of Aviation Sciences, College of Aviation, Western Michigan University and has closely followed the probe of the Dash 8 crash in Buffalo. “It appears to be a classic case of tail-plane stall, but we don’t know. That’s for the NTSB to determine. I don’t know the exact cause of the accident and I don’t profess to know. But this is a good time to emphasize educational awareness about tail-plane stall because for years there wasn’t much said about it, until NASA did its research. But that has not reached all of the pilot community yet. A tail-plane stall is very difficult to recognize and not all pilots understand the procedure, the fact that recovery is the reverse for a wing stall,” she stated.

Brown, who teaches Commercial Pilot Flight Theory, Airline Flight Operations, Advanced Aircraft Systems lab and Aviation Meteorology, was referring to research already covered in Aviation Today’s Daily Brief which focused on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lewis Research’s Center Tail-plane Icing Program (TIP) which yielded a wealth of data from which the space agency produced a 23-minute educational video that described the recovery procedure. The project also led to development of a flight simulation for the effects of tail-plane icing. Pilots have been given the chance to train with the simulation to experience different stall characteristics induced by icing, whether wing stalls or tail-plane stalls.

Her 22-year career in aviation began as a flight attendant. Her early employment history includes a stint at Continental Airlines. She then spent time with Micronesia Air, as a chief pilot and certified flight instructor. Brown then went to Freedom Air as a Part 135 Shorts 360 pilot. After that she became Flight Attendant Director, Northwest Airlink, based in Saipan, but also served as a Part 135 pilot, director of training for flight attendants and check airman for pilots.

She moved on to American Eagle, based in Chicago, Dallas and Miami, as a Part 121 ATR 42 and 72 pilot. Brown then worked with Flight Safety International, serving as a ground and simulator instructor for the Commander Jetprop Aircraft Co. training pilots for the FAA, FBI, CIA, Wal-Mart and the Government of Mexico.

“At Western Michigan University we stress tail-plane stall in coursework,” she told Aviation Today’s Daily Brief. “All our students are required to watch the NASA video and go through NASA’s ground and in-flight icing program. Our students also analyze turboprop accidents that happened in the 1990s. We now think many of them may have been due to tail-plane stalls. We are also pushing our instructors to go back and take a refresher on tail-plane stall as a result of the Buffalo crash. I feel our students are now getting the required amount of instruction regarding tail-plane stall. I’m just not sure if the whole aviation community is really aware, but I see that the word is now getting out, particularly after the Buffalo accident.”

Word apparently hasn’t gotten out completely about NASA’s tail-plane stall simulation.

Stated Brown: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a simulator program where pilots flying in simulated icing conditions can be set up for a tailplane stall, allowing them to experience one and let them practice the recovery.”

Brown flew turboprops in icing conditions for years. “We never engaged the autopilot in any kind of severe icing conditions, and reports said the windshield of the Dash 8 Q400 was iced over, a visual cue of severe icing.

“That’s the reason even in light to moderate icing you periodically disengage the autopilot so you get to feel what’s happening with the aircraft,” she continued. “The autopilot masks tactile cues of an impending stall. And when you disengage it, you may already be in a position where you are unable to recover. I train students to assume that if you have ice on the wings, you have ice on the tail. You don’t know because you can’t see the tail.”

“I flew ATRs. You exit severe icing conditions immediately. A 3,000 feet altitude change is required. The Dash 8 pilots could have escaped the icing conditions by climbing, executing a missed approach,” Brown reasons.

But Brown is not ready to place all blame on icing. “I would be interested to know how many hours the flight deck crew was on duty. Is fatigue a factor here? That’s a very large issue, particularly at the regional airline level.”

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