A Comair commuter plane is de-iced at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport Thursday night
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Comair Flight 3272 flew out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Thursday amid flurries. As it headed north, it encountered much worse winter weather: freezing temperatures, heavier snow and decreasing visibility.
The conditions had pilots across Michigan and northern Ohio complaining of ice on their wings throughout the afternoon, said Mike Smith, a meteorologist and president of WeatherData Inc. in Wichita, Kan.
Conditions at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Mich., when the plane crashed about 18 miles to the southwest included visibility of less than three-quarters of a mile, fog and light snow, said Bill Hosmon, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Wind was blowing about 6 mph, and the temperature was 28 degrees.
Whether ice on the plane's wings was a factor in the crash remained unknown Thursday night, officials said. Aviation experts say ice on the Embraer Brasilia 120 - a twin-engine, low-
wing commuter plane - could cause its autopilot to make adjustments by lifting the nose too far, which can cause a stall, then a sharp vertical drop.
When the Comair plane took off from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, the sky was cloudy, but the temperature was above freezing at 33 degrees and visibility was eight miles, according to Mike Shartran at the National Weather Service's office in Wilmington, Ohio.
The ground around Ida, Mich., already held a few inches of snow by the time the plane crashed, witnesses said. The plane went down as snow was turning to pellets of freezing rain in the 24-degree afternoon.
Patti Cawood, who lives near the crash site and heard the plane go down, said snow had been falling since early morning.
''It's snowing, but it's not that bad,'' she said. ''After all, this is Michigan. We're used to this.''
Tanya Bricking, the Associated Press and the Detroit News contributed to this article.
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