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Seems the "experts" have all crawled out of the woodwork again and are passing off their half baked conjectures and prejuduces as informed analysis of the Continental Q400 tragedy. This supposed NTSB type has it all figured out...you see, the crash occurred because the Dash 8 has wings and tail positioned so the crew cannot see them accumulating ice, therefore rendering them unable to determine when/whether to activate the de-icing systems.
Then the reporter chimes in about "little" airlines--of course--not being blessed with the kind of Air Force Academy "Sullies" like the "big" airlines are ! What brilliant analysis this would be, except for the fact (for starters) that even the vaunted U.S. Air Force does not recruit most of its pilots from its own Academy but from civilian universities. And, despite the huge military pilot output in the US, the majority of "Big-Airline" pilots there have civilian backgrounds.
But the NTSB guy concurs with the reporter, relating the crew's obvious lack of experience, compounded by the "little" airlines' well known lack of standardization as having played a part here. See, everybody?... how they like to keep things simple for us...Big=good..Little=bad...That's the lesson here...That and there are not enough "Sullies" out there flogging turboprops.
Yup, there you have it, mere hours after the event, with accompnying CG artwork ! :
1) the cause of the crash (Evidently, this was a sloppy and inexperienced crew. A couple of ex-fighter jocks... former Vietnam types are the best-if you can still get 'em..would have prevented this). And...
2) ...hints of the required remedial measures (Reposition the crew seats under individual bubble canopies somewhere at the top of the T-tail?....Are you listening, Bombardier?)
Is it just me or does this drivel disgust and repel anyone else on here? How can we trust the press to accurately cover, analyse and explain the really big, pressing problems of our age (worldwide financial mayhem/war and peace/terrorism/environmemtal collapse, etc. etc.) with any kind of nuanced reasonning and sobriety when this is what spews out of these guys every time an airplane goes down? This just disgusts me.