Training Faulted in Colgan Air Buffalo Crash

The February crash of a Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier, a twin-engine turboprop, near Buffalo, NY, killed 50 people.

The NTSB will hold a special hearing on Tuesday to discuss the results. The training by the Colgan Air for the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier didn't include the stick-pusher system, a system designed to prevent stalling.

When a plane is about to stall, a stick-pusher system points the aircraft's nose down into a dive so it can pick up enough speed to allow recovery.

However, when Flight 3407's stick-pusher kicked in on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport the night of Feb. 12, Capt. Marvin Renslow pulled back on the plane's stick, which actually caused the plane to stall and ultimately crash.

Additionally, the WSJ reported that Renslow had flunked numerous flight tests during his career, and that on the day of the accident, his co-pilot, 24-year-old Rebecca Shaw, had complained before takeoff about being congested and said she probably should have called in sick, according to people who listened to the cockpit voice recorder.

Colgan Air said the following in a statement:

"Captain Renslow had all the training and experience required to safely operate the Q400. A stick pusher demonstration in an aircraft simulator is not required by the FAA and was not part of the training syllabus used in the training provided by the aircraft manufacturer through one of the world's leading aviation training companies, and thus was not included in Colgan's Q400 training program."

Tragically, it appears the comment about stick pusher training is in fact true, which is no comfort to the relatives of the victims in the fatal crash.