Aviation Threat and Error Management: Colgan Air Crash - Case Study Example

The various safety issues that are being discussed in this report stress, that strategies are required to be created to prevent failures related to flight crew monitoring, fatigue, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight, pilot professionalism, use of personal portable electronic devices on the flight deck, remedial training, airspeed selection procedures, pilot training records, and weather information provided to pilots. The Colgan Air, Inc. flight, (which was a Bombardier DHC-8-400, N200WQ) was on February 12, 2009, at approximately 2217 Eastern Standard Time was being operated as Continental Connection flight 3407.

The aircraft was approaching Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, New York when it crashed into a residence in Clarence Centre, New York. This was approximately 5 nautical miles in the northeast sector of the airport's airspace. Two pilots, two flight attendants, as well as 45 passengers on board, and one person on the ground, were killed. The crash destroyed the aircraft by impact forces along with a post-crash fire. This flight had been operating under the provisions of Code 14 of the Federal Regulations which is a part of Section 121.

Night visual meteorological conditions also prevailed when the accident occurred (NTSB, 2009a). The probable cause was being determined by the National Transportation Safety Board to understand the gap areas because of which the accident occurred. They were trying to understand if this was due to the captain’s inappropriate response for activating the stick shaker that might have led to an aerodynamic stall due to which the airplane was not able to recover. With this, the contributing factor could have been that the failure of the flight crew’s with regards to monitoring airspeed in relation to the rising position of the low-speed cue.

It could have been that the flight crew failed to adhere to the sterile cockpit procedures, or it was a failure on the part of the captain to effectively managing the flight. At last, it could have been Colgan Air’s inadequate procedures for airspeed selection as well as management in approaching the icing conditions that lead to the crash (NTSB, 2009b).