Copilot Spoke of Feeling Sick Before Crash

Source: CBS News

New details released today about the February 2009 crash of a Colgan Air Bombardier outside Buffalo, N.Y., in which 50 people died reveals the First Officer commented before takeoff that she felt so sick she should not be flying that day.

CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports that the National Transportation Safety Board has released the transcript of an extended cockpit conversation between Capt. Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw as they were waiting to take off in Newark, N.J.

According to the transcript, Shaw said she felt so sick she shouldn't have come to work and was considering calling in sick the next day.

Colgan Air Flight 3407 (which was also tagged as a Continental Connection flight) fell from the sky on the evening of February 12, 2009. The Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 crashed into a house on its approach to Buffalo-Niagra International Airport.

All 49 people on board and one person on the ground were killed.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/27/national/main5191638.shtml?tag=stack

I don't think having a cold directly leads to an airplane crashing and killing all aboard.

though I fly only for my own enjoyment. The first item on my checklist is an honest assessment as to whether I'm at 100 percent both physically and mentally, and that assessment is done before I leave the house. There's enough to worry about while ensuring a safe outcome to a flight, and health issues shouldn't be one of them.

...and it is used as part of Threat Error Management. We drill this into our ab initio students heads from Day 1 of flight training. Unfortunately, the tyranny of the bottom line always trumps the culture of safety (in spite of what the corporate lie says).

I don't have any professional or monetary pressure to have to be anywhere. We've got several airline pilots in my club, and there is no shortage of stories when the hangar flying begins.

A co-pilot being sick a factor, perhaps, but not likely anything significant in this crash. Remember, there were two pilots and the other one was the more experienced Captain.

Most likely, both were simply incompetent to be at the controls given the circumstances and adverse weather conditions reported at the time. The plane was capable of dealing with the icing, but only if proper procedures were followed - in this case apparently not.

These small regional carriers have descended so far into cost cutting measures that these pilots make almost nothing, are pushed to the limits and overall standards have dropped considerably as a result. I suspect we'll be seeing more and more of these accidents over the coming years as airlines continue to cut as many corners as possible, and the worst place to do that is cutting pilot pay and benefits, thought that's where they've obviously been doing it.

The details that have already been made available on this crash definitely point to incompetence in the cockpit in the face of potentially dangerous weather conditions where there's no room for incompetence.

And it's reasonable to presume that this accident is probably the result of long term cost cutting procedures in place at all of our U.S. Airlines. The pilots have all been losing salaries and other benefits steadily for years now. You don't recruit and keep high quality pilots when paying minimum level wages.

...if you talk to the crews at ASA or Pinnacle you'll get a different perspective. Colgan on the other hand is a horse of an entirely different hue.

My comments are based not just on subjective observation, but personally knowing several professional pilots over the past ten years, along with a number of young and upcoming student pilots who landed jobs flying small regional jets, at like $1500/month.

That's right, those "kids" up in the cockpit of the CRJ200 commuter jet are barely out of flight school, young enough to put over your knee and spank, and are getting paid what amounts to minimum wage for the incredible responsibility they have. And they get taken advantage of daily by the airlines.

This is but another result of corporate America and the damage they've done by this 30+ year war on labor prices. Of course, that's why we're headed into this next great depression...low wages for the masses, including Airline Pilots!

...a couple of hundred "kids" (average age 29) in the last ab initio program I was at with a 93% placement rate with the regionals (and we were very selective on which regionals they went to), I'd say that it's still a broadbrush you paint with.

Point in case, I was flying back from Ottawa in February when miserable conditions set in. ATC screwed up and put us nose-to-nose with a Extended Dash-8 (the same type of plane that went in at Buffalo) on a taxiway and after un-effing the effed we had to return to the de-icing pad because we exceeded the Glycol IV time in the conditions. Although we were late getting to Detroit the crew displayed a phenomenal level of professionalism in a situation that could have easily lined the swiss cheese up (ask one of your pilot friends about that). After we landed at DTW I went forward to the flight deck to thank the crew and lo and behold their ages were 31 and 27 and respectively had 6000 and 3000 hours apiece (most of which were in turbine aircraft). The point of this is don't speculate on the professionalism, airmanship, or maturity of our flight crews because of their age or where they come from (unless you also believe that a "kid" coming out of Pensecola with a couple of hundred hours shouldn't be making night carrier landings with his/her F-18).

Oh and on edit: all of the pilots we put into the regionals have sterling records without one incident much less accident. And yes we keep in touch.

I wonder why this is coming out now. An attempt to deflect blame, perhaps?

I agree about small airlines in general. Safety's not their first priority.

Shaw also complained that she earned only $15,800 the year before from Colgan Air, the Continental subcontractor that managed the flight. She also said Colgan refused to give her $200 in back pay she thought she was owed.

"I feel like Colgan walks all over me. This company treats me like crap so much," she says in the transcript.

The newly released transcript also shows Shaw — who commuted to Newark from her home in Seattle on a red-eye flight the night before — sniffling repeatedly as Flight 3407 waited to take off.

The transcript was one of several new documents the NTSB released today, including details of a flight simulation that attempted to mimic the conditions about Flight 3407, which stalled over Clarence and plunged to the ground, killing 50.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/746101.html

"I mean if I call in sick now, I've got to put myself in a hotel room until feel better," said Shaw, who also complained about her low salary. "We'll see how ... it feels flying. If the pressure's just too much I, you know, I could always call in tomorrow. At least I'm in a hotel on the company's buck, but we'll see. I'm pretty tough."

Renslow suggested to Shaw that she "kill it with, you know, a bunch of OJ or a bunch of vitamin C."

Shaw also complained about poor treatment by Colgan Air Inc. of Manassas, Va., which operated the flight for Continental Airlines. She said she earned only $15,800 the previous year and the airline was refusing to give her $200 in back pay she felt she was owed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g4lPW3fYLQUuKXRHOdPO5BfBQc_gD99MVM482

are simply appalling. Older commercial pilots for the majors are amazed at how little experience these folks have. No thanks. I'll drive between some cities rather than risk it.