BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The investigation into the January 1997 fatal crash of Comair Flight 3272 likely will have broad implications for the commuter airline industry, especially for operations in icing conditions, a federal transportation official said Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will meet Thursday to consider a final report on Flight 3272, which took off from Cincinnati and crashed Jan. 9, 1997, on approach to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
All on board -- three crew members and 26 passengers -- were killed. In particular, the report is expected to emphasize the role icing played in the crash of the Brazilian-made Embraer EMB-120 and the certification requirements for commuter airplanes of all types to operate in icing conditions.
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FLIGHT 3272
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"It is going to have wide applicability," NTSB spokesman Paul Schlamm said of the expected effect of the agency's report. "The implications go beyond (that) particular type of aircraft to turboprops in general."
Close to 60 million passengers fly commuter airlines annually, a figure that is expected to double by 2005. Fast-growing Comair is based in Erlanger.
About 220 EMB-120 airplanes are registered in the United States, the NTSB said.
The NTSB report on Flight 3272 will deal specifically with the adequacy of ice protection systems, airspeed and flap configurations, stall warning and protection equipment and the autopilot system, among other items.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and attorneys for the families of the victims contend there are other major issues as well.
"We are convinced that ice is a factor," said Cincinnati plaintiffs' attorney Stanley M. Chesley. Mr. Chesley, who heads a lawyers' group representing victims' families, said the manufacturing, design and operation of the aircraft also played major roles.
Mr. Chesley is involved in a lawsuit, whose targets include Embraer and Comair, scheduled to go to trial in U.S. District Court in Michigan on Sept. 15.
The pilots' union contends the process by which foreign-made aircraft are certified to operate in the United States looms over the crash and Thursday's NTSB meeting.
Bilateral agreements with other countries too easily allow aircraft certified safe in other nations to operate in the United States, said Capt. Mitchell Serber, who headed the investigation of the Comair crash for the pilots' union.
Too often U.S. authorities end up rubber-stamping safety evaluations of planes made overseas, he said.
"You are talking about not only regional airline aircraft but major airline aircraft as well," Mr. Serber said. "There needs to be a more hands-on approach."
Mr. Serber said the performance of the pilots in the Comair crash -- Capt. Dann Carlsen of Grant County, Ky., and First Officer Kenneth Reece of Fort Wright -- is not an issue. "The pilots were flying the airplane according to all FAA guidelines and company guidelines incumbent upon them," he said.
Comair 3272 left Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport at 2:51 p.m. on Jan. 9, 1997.
The flight data recorder indicated a relatively normal descent into the Detroit airport until 3:54 p.m., when the plane experienced what investigators have called "a rapid upset in roll and pitch." It nose-dived 4,000 feet into a snow-covered field.
The pilots' union, in its investigation, had called attention to the stall shaker, a device that is supposed to vibrate the controls of the aircraft to warn of a stall.
"The information that the computer uses to tell whether it is time to activate that system is based on dry air (conditions) for flying the airplane," Mr. Serber said.
In addition, he said, the autopilot system has a tendency to disconnect without warning.
The airplane had a history of de-icing equipment and propeller problems and had been pulled out of service 22 times since 1992. As part of its investigation, the NTSB has looked at six prior "icing events" involving the EMB-120, from 1989-1995, including one in France.
"The flight crews in the . . . icing incidents either were not aware of the ice accretion or did not believe that ice accretion was severe enough to activate the de-ice (equipment). These circumstances suggest the flight crews need better information to help them recognize conditions that warrant activating the de-ice (equipment)," a May 1997 NTSB memo said.
The pilots' union contends that critical information about problems with the plane's equipment, including the de-icing system, was known by the FAA well before the Comair crash and not communicated to pilots.
"ALPA believes that this accident was avoidable and was caused by the action (or inactions) of many organizations," the pilots' union said in its filing with the NTSB.
"There were several significant warnings during the history of the EMB-120 operations that should have resulted in proactive actions to preclude an accident."
Comair filed suit against Embraer in April, charging that the company failed to disclose information about the aircraft's vulnerability in icy conditions.
Enquirer coverage of the Crash of Comair 3272
