Southwest Issues Warning about Runway Defect at Buffalo Airport
Southwest Airlines has issued a warning to its pilots about a potential hazard on the Buffalo Airport runway – the same runway Continental Flight 3407 was to land on last week.
According to the alert, there may be an obstruction on the runway that can impact equipment used by planes coming in for a landing, this impact could lead to the pilot slowing the plane down to an unsafe speed. The hazard can affect planes on autopilot and can result in the aircraft's nose pitching up to a 30 degree angle. Evidence from the data recorder recovered from Flight 3407's crash site shows that the nose of the aircraft pitched up by approximately 31 degrees as the plane automatically began to dive trying gain speed.
.jpg)
Among the many theories about the crash of Continental Flight 3407 is the idea that the pilot overreacted after the plane automatically began to dive, in order to generate speed. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has denied that these ground anomalies at Buffalo Niagara International Airport have any link to the Continental crash. According to FAA representatives, Southwest aircraft do not used the same route used by Flight 3407 to get to that particular runway. The FAA has, apparently, been aware of the ground obstruction hazard, Southwest mentions in its alert, for the past 8 years. According to the FAA representative, Southwest uses terrain on the northern side of the airport that can generate abnormalities in aircraft signals.
Meanwhile, the mystery of the pitching of the aircraft's nose is becoming a vital part of investigations in the Continental crash. The team is looking at understanding pilot and crew behavior in the moments just before the crash of Flight 3407. For investigators, that could be the toughest part of the probe; any audio information recovered from aircraft black boxes after a crash is notoriously hard to decipher. It's rare for a black box recording to reveal strong clues about the pilot's intent, his plans and his state of mind in the moments before the aviation accident. Investigating what the crew of the doomed flight was thinking or planning just before the crash can take months of decoding the grunts, curt comments and mumbles of the crew just before the crash.
Plane Accident Resources
Our experienced staff has helped many victims cope with life-changing tragedies and get the physical, emotional and financial help they need. If you're looking for answers about an aviation crash, attorneys at Arnold & Itkin LLP can help you.
