Continental Airlines Flight 3407 Crashes

Continental Airlines flight 3407 crashed on its final approach into the Buffalo Niagara International Airport shortly after ten o'clock at night on February twelfth. There was no emergency communication or distress signal from the crew or any indication of trouble before it disappeared from radar and crashed into a private home six mile short of the runway.

This is the first commercial airliner crash with fatalities since the crash of Comair Flight 191, two and a half years ago. It is the second commercial airline crash this year, following the heroic landing of US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River almost a month earlier. It is also the second incident involving Continental Airways in recent months. . In December, Continental Airways flight 1404 veered off the runway in Denver, Colorado, catching fire. There were no fatalities in either of these incidents.

In all, fifty people were killed, forty-nine were in the aircraft and a resident of the house the airliner crashed into. The small commuter turboprop was a seventy-four seat plane operated by Colgan Air. It is unknown at this time what caused the crash, but the plane was equipped with de-icing equipment. There was sleet reported in the area, and other planes reported icing on the wings at about the same time.

The plane had been cleared for landing at Buffalo, and was in communication with the tower when it vanished from the radar at air traffic control. The tower contacted a nearby aircraft for a visual sighting and got a negative reply. According to eye witnesses, the place was almost perpendicular to the ground when it slammed into the house. Only one house was destroyed, killing one of its occupants and injuring two others, although twelve nearby houses were evacuated, due to the resulting fires.

One fatality on board the aircraft was Beverly Eckert, whose husband was killed in the September 11 attacks. Other notables killed in the crash were Gerry Nierwood, a jazz saxophonist with Chuck Mangione, and Alison Des Forges, a Rwandan genocide expert.

A local senior center was set up as a family assistance center, and the Red Cross opened similar centers in Buffalo and Newark, where the plane originated. President Obama and the governors of New York and New Jersey have extended condolences to the families.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident with the full cooperation of Colgan Air and its parent company, Pinnacle Airlines.