Results tagged “buffalo”

The National Transportation Safety Board released pre-flight transcripts from Flight 3407, the fatal flight from Newark that crashed near its destination of Buffalo in February, and it turns out that co-pilot Rebecca Shaw was in fact sick. She told pilot Marvin Renslow, while sniffling, "I'm ready to be in the hotel room. This is one of those times that if I felt like this when I was at home there's no way I would have come all the way out here. But now that I'm out here," to which Renslow said, "You might as well [fly]." Forty-nine people on the plane were killed; one person on the ground was killed.

In the wake of the NTSB's hearings about the fatal Flight 3407 that crashed in Buffalo, more attention is being drawn on low pilot pay and their commutes. Flight 3407's captain commuted from Tampa to Newark while the co-pilot (who only made $16,000/year) commuted from Seattle. One young pilot tells the NY Times he makes $25,000/year as a co-pilot and is $100,000 in debt from training. One senior pilot said he was lucky to get 4.5 hours of sleep at a hotel, because others can't afford hotel rooms or even "crash pads" listed on Craigslist. A former regional pilot (now a safety consultant) said, "I know a guy who bought a car that barely ran and parked it in the employee lot at his base airport, and slept in his car six or seven times a month." And NY-based (but lives in Boston) pilot Alex LaPointe spoke to the Daily News, "Probably at least once a trip you find yourself nodding off just 'cause there's some days you don't get enough sleep...If you spend an extra three or four hours commuting on top of a 14-hour duty day, you can easily go 18, 20 hours of being up. It cuts into your rest. It certainly fatigues you."

Colgan Air officials said that they had changed hiring requirement for pilots, raising the number of hours flown from 600 to 1000 hours. The move is a response to the fatal Continental Flight 3407 plane crash—operated by Colgan— from Newark to Buffalo, which killed the 49 passengers and crew members plus one person on the ground. The flight's pilot, Marvin Renslow, only had 625 hours of flight time; he also failed the FAA proficiency test three times.

The National Transportation Safety Board began its three days of meetings examining Continental Flight 3407's fatal crash outside Buffalo this past February. Transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder reveal that Captain Marvin Renslow said, "Jesus Christ!" and swore as he scrambled to right the plane and that co-pilot Rebecca Shaw screamed right before the plane crashed.

According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, "The captain of a commuter plane that crashed Feb. 12 near Buffalo, N.Y., had flunked numerous flight tests during his career and was never adequately taught how to respond to the emergency that led to the airplane's fatal descent." The 49 passengers and crew members aboard Continental Airlines Flight 3407, which took off from Newark and was headed to Buffalo, were killed, as was a man on the ground. The plane was a Bombardier Q400; the WSJ adds, "Capt. Marvin Renslow had never been properly trained by the company to respond to a warning system designed to prevent the plane from going into a stall...As the speed slowed to a dangerous level, setting off the stall-prevention system, he did the opposite of the proper procedure, which led to the crash, these people said." The NTSB will be holding three days of hearings about the crash in D.C., starting tomorrow; the NY Times reports that while the FAA requires "sterile" (meaning no irrelevant conversation) cockpits below 10,000 feet, "According to one investigator familiar with the contents of the cockpit voice recorder from the plane, the pilots’ 'heads weren’t in the game.'"

Jack Kemp, a star quarterback on the Buffalo Bills in the 1960s who later became a Republican congressman, died last night at 73 in his Maryland home. His family said, "During the treatment of his cancer, Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends, a gratitude which the Kemp family shares." While Kemp's football career was impressive, the NY Times reports, "His greatest legacy may stem from his years as a congressman from Buffalo, especially 1978, when his argument for sharp tax cuts to promote economic growth became party policy, one that has endured to this day." Kemp was also an advocate for the Republican party to include more minorities; noting how many of his teammates were black, he told friends, "I can’t help but care about the rights of the people I used to shower with." Kemp, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1988, was housing secretary under George H.W. Bush and was Bob Dole's running mate in the 1996 election.

Yesterday Governor Paterson announced a $10.7 billion plan that would improve freight and passenger rail service between NYC and various points upstate. The state hopes to vie for federal funds that would help double the number of intercity rail passengers along New York’s three major corridors (New York City to Albany, Albany to Niagara Falls and Albany to Montreal), increase freight service, and improve train performance—and this would, hopefully, reduce reliance on air and auto travel. Senator Schumer said, “From Albany to Rochester and from Poughkeepsie to Plattsburgh, we must update and reinvent our rail network to unclog the transportation arteries cutting off potential economic growth Upstate." However, hopes for a "high speed train" don't quite mean a bullet train: The Post explains, "At full development, Paterson envisions a train system that peaks out at 150 mph" ("Currently, the top speed on most tracks is 70 mph").

In the wake of America's first fatal airline accident in 30 months, the Times takes a look at how the FAA has responded to other crashes over the years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, reporter Matthew Wald's tour of the FAA sausage factory concludes that the bureaucracy is a tad "cumbersome." The National Transportation Safety Board, which advises the FAA on regulations, currently cites 429 "outstanding recommendations" which have still not been acted on by the FAA. 146 of them are more than five years old, such as a proposed fix for the malfunction that caused the explosion of T.W.A. Flight 800 (pictured) over Long Island in 1996, which investigators concluded was caused by an electrical flaw in the fuel tank. (Many others have speculated that a shoulder-fired missile took down the plane.) After some 12 years of debate about a solution, the FAA now reports that airlines should finally have the problem fixed... in another eight years.

The National Transportation Safety Board revealed a number of details about the Continental Express flight to Buffalo that crashed on Thursday night.

      

The Buffalo News reports, "Forensic anthropologists and aviation experts are walking grids in Clarence Center, where Continental Express Flight 3407 went down, trying to determine what caused the craft to take a horrific vertical dive." They will mark every spot "where human remains, pieces of the aircraft and personal effects are recovered." The flight's 49 passengers and crew were killed, as was the owner of the home where the plane crashed. According to the NTSB, recovery of the bodies may take several days; here is a partial list of victims.

As families and others mourn the death of everyone aboard Continental 3407, one man is counting his blessings. WCBS 2 caught up with David Beckeney, who missed the connecting flight to Buffalo because his flight into Newark was delayed by five hours. His wife had been waiting at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Beckeney said, "It's been a long trip…I'm fortunate, I'm very fortunate. I feel sorry for those people. It could have been me." While wife Marty is relieved her husband is safe, she saw other families learn of the tragic news, "It's awful, just awful - I feel bad for them. I feel bad because they're sad and I'm happy... I just can't imagine life without him. When you say goodbye, you just never know."

       

The National Transportation Safety Board retrieved the flight data recorders—aka the "black boxes"—from Continental Flight 3407, which crashed just outside of Buffalo in Clarence Center, NY last night. All 49 passengers and crew members were killed, as was one person on the ground, whose home was leveled by the commuter plane (an apparently new Bombardier Q400). Governor Paterson visited the crash site and said, "We're all connected, and we find out how connected we are on days like this." This was the first commercial American airline accident with fatalities since August 2006.

According to Buffalo news stations, Continental Airlines Flight 3407 crashed in the town of Clarence, NY, which is about 20 miles east of Buffalo. The plane, which the FAA said had 49 passengers and crew (updated; there were actually 5 crew members) on it, crashed into an occupied home around 10:20 p.m. The Buffalo News says that 49 people—the plane's occupants plus a person on the ground—were killed. The flight had originated at Newark Airport and the Continental website said the flight was "operated by Colgan Air dba Continental Connection." Also according to the flight info, the flight was scheduled to land in Buffalo at 8:48 p.m. but was delayed with an expected landing time of 10:45 p.m. The plane is described as a Bombardier Q400.

Some New Yorkers leave the city for our reasonably-priced neighbor, New Jersey, others leave to start farms, and now NYMag reports that some are leaving for Buffalo, NY. One couple (and there's more than one!) in their 30s recently left their 1.5 bdrm Sunset Park apartment (and $1300/month rent) for the greener pastures of the upstate city, where they enjoy their new rent of $795/month. Just what does one get for that price? Three-bedrooms, living room, dining room, basement, a front and back porch, stained-glass windows, and a separate office...on a tree lined street...400 miles away from what used to be their city of dreams. One of the Buffalonians had this to say, “I don’t miss my old life in New York. I only miss the life in New York I know I never would have had.” Sad, really, but if you too have dreams of stained glass windows...there's plenty available.

Some new details about the relationship Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) had with a former Legislative intern. The Post now reports the intern, Lori Gladwell, was 24 and "wrapping up a six-month internship with another legislator" when the affair with the married Hoyt started in May 2003. Her lawyer said, "This is a personal matter that concluded three years ago...My client has moved on with her life, and she hopes that all parties do the same." Hoyt, who says he did nothing wrong, is currently under investigation by the Ethics Committee, because there's a strict no-fraternization rule between interns and lawmakers (the law wasn't put in place until 2004, after another lawmaker slept at an intern's hotel room because he was too drunk to drive). The Buffalo News has an interesting article about the controversy--Hoyt's lawyer think the attacks are coming from his primary challenger, Barbara Kavanaugh.

The scandal around emails that Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) reportedly sent a colleague's teen intern is currently out of Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver's hands, as the Ethics Committee looks it over. However, the NY Times notes that accusations of sexual misconduct by lawmakers or staffers is "especially sensitive for Mr. Silver, who has faced criticism that he mishandled a 2001 complaint that his former chief of staff sexually assaulted an Assembly employee."

A five-year-old in Jamestown--60 miles south of Buffalo--managed to take his grandmother's pickup truck for a drive. And it was caught on tape!