My best friend was house sitting right over there and He actually saw this thing come in low im just glad he is ok, a little shaken but who the hell isnt. Its one of those life changing expirences that I wouldnt know how to handle. Also i live in a Direct flight path of the airport and planes are always flying over my house here. Most of the time i can read clearly the words on the bottoms of these planes and now Im honestly freaked out as shit. I know this is a freak accident but still knowing this had it been coming in for the landing via this route it coulda been over here. Thoughts and prayers goin out to the familys and community.
I think everyone is a little misled when they hear about the ice buildup on the windshield. The windshields have a heating element inside the glass. Not 100% of the windshied has the element. The spots where there is no element, there is no protection from ice. When you are in icing condtions, part of the windshield is iced over, and the part that you look through is clean. This is a normal part of flying in icing conditions. I’m fairly certain that when the crew was talking about “significant ice buildup”, they were talking about the unheated portions. If the whole windshield was iced over, I’m certain they would have declared an emergency to ATC. Also no other plane in the area reported “severe icing”, which means that the ice buildup is occuring faster than the airplane can shed it.
Actually, its very common for the windscreen to be overpowered by icing, and for it to clear once they get out of icing conditions. It sheds fast, but you can only pump so many amps into a windshield, and only get it so hot before you start to cause bubbles in the gel layer between the panes. Its not an emergency cause your still flying the approach as advertised. You just go missed if you cannot see the runway environment like you do in every situation. Normally it sheds very fast, but if they had just broke out, the icing could of still been there.
3 arrests for tresspassing there today-idiots
FYI - Windows don’t melt. They usually only delaminate. Worse case scenario they shatter or explode.
Duh. Not like you can’t imagine what the area looks like now.
Let the investigators and clean up crew do their job.
Why the fuck would you want to see that, much less tresspass to do it. Sick mother fuckers. You would have to pay me alot of money to be there. Just let these people do their jobs so they can go home to thier families.
I flew out of Newark the day after, on the same flight and same kind of plane. It was fucked up.
The guy in front of me was some head honcho from Continental who was flying to Buffalo for something important. I also had the families of some of the victims on the plane with me. Very sad to see.
just wondering… how did you know he was head honcho from continental? because im sure if the familys would have known it would have been a yelling match on the plane
Interesting update:
oops…
oh there will be some outrage over that one.
understandably so, but batten the hatches.
a good article for anyone that knew someone on board (or just wants to read about some of the people): http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/579271.html
Well Continental and Colgan Air shoudl have quite the lawsuit on their hands with that auto pilot revelation.
I am sensing them going out of business in the next 12 mos.
Not really. The manual says to disengage the autopilot during “severe icing conditions” which is when icing is so severe that the deicing equipment cannot control it. There has been no indication of this so far.
although its still early in the investigation i’m gonna say this plays:
Severe icing would be suggested when they decided to comment about it to each other on the radio suggesting that the system was not keeping up with what they were encountering.
Also if I was to create a theory I would say they were on auto pilot and when that system kicked off because of the overload of the icing situation that the pilot was not prepared for it and did not react in time to gain control of the plane.
i honestly feel like this is being brought up way to much, just listening to the news now thats all that is still on… and i find it really depressing because that people keep trying to see the scene
Thats because we as a society will make the one person that gets pictures of the scene a freakin hero for doing it. Stop rewarding bad behavior, and people will stop doing it.
Darren Tolsma wasn’t supposed to be on Flight 3407. He was booked to fly out of Newark Liberty Airport on a later plane.
“He took an earlier flight because he wanted to be home so he could say good night to his kids,” said Tolsma’s wife, Robin. “That tells you how much he was devoted to them.”
Nikki, 16, and Darren, 19, were the apples of their father’s eye.
“The best way I could say it is he lived his life for his kids. He was so proud of them,” said Robin Tolsma, an English teacher at Lancaster Middle School. “His favorite place to be was at Lancaster High School, watching his kids do anything in track or field hockey.”
Runners wore black armbands in his memory Saturday at a track meet.
One of Darren Tolsma’s favorite things to do was to take late-night walks with his son, which could go on for an hour or more.
“They would talk about college, and all the things they could talk about without mom. My son was so sad thinking he would never have those walks again,” Robin Tolsma said.
Darren Tolsma worked for 25 years as a defense engineer at Northrop Grumman Amherst Systems. His co-workers were his “second family,” his wife said.
He was also proud of their two-story home in Lancaster — especially his manicured lawn.
“He used to Google his own house so he could see how nice it looked from space. He was proud of that lawn,” Robin Tolsma said.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in Lancaster High School, 1 Forton Drive.
this is something i told darren i would do when my son was old was of the age…
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS PHONE 310.201.3333
FAX 310.201.3092
CA 09-06
Mourning our Fallen Colleagues
To Northrop Grumman Employees:
As you all know by now, the Continental Airlines commuter aircraft crash that occurred in
Buffalo last Thursday evening tragically claimed the lives of four of our Northrop Grumman
Electronic Systems sector colleagues at our Amherst Systems business unit in Buffalo.
Up until now, we have withheld the names of the four employees out of respect for their
families’ privacy. However, now that the passenger list has been released by the local Buffalo
newspaper, we are able to provide you the names of the four employees who were among the
passengers and crew who perished in the crash.
They are: Ernest (Ernie) W. West, Darren J. Tolsma, Steven L. Johnson, and Jerome (Jerry)
D. Krasuski.
During this most difficult time, please join me as we pause to remember our fallen colleagues,
while continuing to keep their families and loved ones in our thoughts and prayers.
Our Amherst Systems management team, aided by Human Resources specialists from across the
sector, is continuing to work with the families to ensure that they are receiving the support and
services they need during this most devastating time. Employee assistance, including grief
counseling, is also being made available to anyone at the Amherst Systems facility in Buffalo.
James F. Pitts
Corporate Vice President and
President, Electronic Systems
Since all of the names havent came out yet.