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Plane's Position Reinforces Idea That Pilot Battled Ice

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The Associated Press

Published: February 15, 2009

CLARENCE, N.Y. - A commuter plane that smashed into a house apparently plunged flat to the ground rather than nose-diving, ending up pointed away from the airport it was trying to reach, investigators said Saturday.
Investigators did not offer an explanation as to why the plane was pointed away from the Buffalo airport, but it raises the possibility the pilot was fighting an icy airplane: Air safety guidelines say a pilot can try a 180-degree turn to rid a plane of ice.

Other possible explanations are that the aircraft was spinning or flipped upon impact.
Flight data showed the plane's safety systems warned the pilot that the aircraft was perilously close to losing lift and plummeting from the sky. The ensuing crash killed 49 people on the plane and one in the house.

Continental Connection Flight 3407 was cleared to land on a runway pointing to the southwest, but it crashed with its nose pointed northeast, said Steve Chealander, a National Transportation Safety Board member.

The Associated Press

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