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Originally Posted by NickN
Just heard on the news the a/c was on autopilot and supposedly headed away from the airport and the time of the crash?
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Yes it was on Autopilot according to NTSB conference.
Id like to clarify some things because it seems alot is being misreported by the media and then funneled to the general public which Steve Chealander (NTSB spokesman) says is hurting the families of victims so intensly- the misreporting/insensitive reporting.
As for turning away from airport at time of crash- I think the north easterly heading just around the time of crash was a possible result of stall/pitch roll but obviously this will be determined.
I heard on Fox News today after the NTSB media conference the host say something to the extent "the decision to leave on autopilot by crew mustve played a contributing factor to the crash" and I thought this was very insensitive reporting as facts are not known yet and see below.
Heres an excerpt from avherald.com which furthers what I mean above.
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The NTSB recommends to fly manually in icing conditions to get a better feel of the airplane, however, the FAA takes a different attitude due to workload issues. No regulation exists therefore requiring pilots to fly manually in icing conditions.
The Dash 8-400 flight crew operating manual released by Bombardier, owner of de Havilland, requires flight crews to disengage the autopilot in severe icing conditions.
The use of the autopilot was therefore appropriate - other than what almost all media reported today.
The crew had not only activated the de-icing system, but had also activated their reference speed increase switch, a feature of the Dash 8, which increases all reference speeds by 20 knots to protect against stall in icing conditions.
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