Sunday, February 15, 2009

Buffalo plane crash - auto pilot engaged


the problem with landing with an auto pilot engaged in known icing conditions is that the autopilot doesn't know there is ice on the wings or horizontal stabilizer - pilots should have disengaged autopilot, increased air speed, and NOT deployed any flaps in preparation to land (wing surface is screwed up with ice, flaps only change the shape of an already distorted strange wing surface - adding flaps increases the mystery of how the plane will handle with ice on the wings). Did pilots look at wings? could they see the wings from cockpit? thing is, these pilots flew in these conditions often, so they should have known better. Or did they become complacent?

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