From the Associated Press:

Steve Chealander, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said the company that operated the flight recommends pilots fly manually in icy conditions. Pilots are required to do so in severe ice.

“You may be able in a manual mode to sense something sooner than the autopilot can sense it,” Chealander told The Associated Press in an interview, explaining why the NTSB also recommends that pilots disengage the autopilot in icy conditions.

The preliminary investigation indicates the autopilot was still on when the plane crashed, he said. That has not been confirmed by information from the plane’s flight data recorder.

The pilots of Continental Flight 3407 discussed “significant” ice buildup on their wings and windshield just before crashing Thursday night in a suburban neighborhood near the Buffalo airport. Fifty people were killed.

The flight was run by Colgan Air, which operates a fleet of 51 regional turboprops for Continental Connection, United Express and US Airways Express.

In a December safety alert issued by the NTSB, the agency said pilots in icy conditions should turn off or limit the use of the autopilot to better “feel” changes in the handling qualities of the airplane.

Chealander also said Colgan, like most airline companies, had begun following NTSB recommendations that pilots use deicing systems as soon as they enter conditions that might lead to icing.

From the Associated Press:

Investigators did not offer an explanation as to why the plane ended up pointed away from the Buffalo airport, but it does raise the possibility the pilots were fighting an icy airplane: Air safety guidelines say pilots 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 Newark, N.J.-to-Buffalo flight didn’t nose-dive into the house, as initially reported by some witnesses, Chealander said.

It will take as many as four days to remove human remains from the site, which he called an “excavation.”

“Keep in mind, there’s an airplane that fell on top of a house, and they’re now intermingled,” he said.

The plane — on its descent to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in a light snow and mist — plunged suddenly about six miles shy of the runway and exploded.

A “stick shaker” and “stick pusher” mechanism had activated to warn Capt. Marvin Renslow that the plane was about to lose aerodynamic lift, a condition called a stall. When the “stick pusher” engaged, it would have pointed the nose of the plane toward the ground to try to increase lift.

Crash investigators picked through incinerated wreckage Saturday, gathering evidence to determine what brought down the plane. Icing on the aircraft is suspected to have played a role, but officials have stopped short of calling that the cause.

Chealander said indicators lights showed the deicing equipment was working and that investigators who examined both engines said it appears they were working normally at the time of the crash.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Ice and cold temperatures hampered recovery and investigation efforts today of the Continental Airlines turboprop plane that crashed Thursday night, as nearly 150 emergency workers and volunteers combed the crash scene while local residents handed out pizza and drinks.

Water, which firefighters had used to douse the crash scene a day earlier, froze as temperatures dropped overnight, creating a hard, cold blanket that workers melted down with torpedo heaters.

“All we know is that the airplane hit flat. It was a sudden catastrophic event that took place and then 30 seconds later it impacted,” he said.

From the Associated Press:

Officials stopped short of saying the ice buildup caused Thursday night’s crash and stressed that nothing has been ruled out. But ice on a plane’s wings can interfere catastrophically with an aircraft’s handling and has been blamed for a number of major air disasters over the years.

Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., went down in light snow and fog late Thursday and crashed into a house in suburban Clarence. Killed were 44 passengers, four crew members, one off-duty pilot and one person on the ground.

Two others escaped from the home, which was engulfed in a dramatic fireball that raged higher than the treetops and burned for hours. Bodies still could not be recovered hours later.

The plane went through a “severe pitch and roll” experience after positioning its flaps for a landing, said Steve Chealander, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Doug Hartmayer, a spokesman for Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which runs the airport, said: “The plane simply dropped off the radar screen.”

No mayday call came from the pilot before the crash, according to a recording of air traffic control‘s radio messages captured by the Web site LiveATC.net. Neither the controller nor the pilot showed concern that anything was out of the ordinary as the airplane was asked to fly at 2,300 feet.

Federal investigators recovered the black box recorders from the smoldering wreckage Friday and returned them to Washington. The 74-seat Q400 Bombardier aircraft, in the Dash 8 family of planes, was operated by Colgan Air, based in Manassas, Va. Colgan’s parent company, Pinnacle Airlines of Memphis, Tenn., said the plane was new and had a clean safety record.

From CNN:

“I am horribly saddened by this news,” said Valerie Lucznikowska, a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.

Lucznikowska said she, Eckert and another woman traveled to Washington last Friday for a meeting between 9/11 family members and President Barack Obama.

“I would very much like to honor her,” Lucznikowska said. “She was truly a wonderful person. She was someone who was trying to make society better.”

Lucznikowska, whose nephew died in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, said Eckert asked Obama whether the group would have ongoing meetings with his administration. Obama said meetings would continue, even though they wouldn’t necessarily be with him.

Eckert backed Peaceful Tomorrows’ effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and end the military commissions there, Lucznikowska said. The group elaborated on this stance in a signed letter to Obama, and Eckert gave a presidential aide a separate letter listing her own concerns, Lucznikowska said.

A resident of Stamford, Connecticut, Eckert was the widow of Buffalo native Sean Rooney, who died at the World Trade Center. After that attack, Eckert co-founded “Voices of September 11,” an advocacy group for survivors and 9/11 families.

She was traveling to Buffalo for a weekend celebration of what would have been her husband’s 58th birthday, according to the Buffalo News — the first news agency to report her presence on the fatal flight.

The newspaper quoted Eckert’s sister, Sue Bourque, as saying: “We know she was on that plane,” even though the family hadn’t received official confirmation.

Eckert also planned to take part in presenting a scholarship award at Canisius High School that was established in honor of her late husband, who was a Canisius alumni, according to the school’s president, John Knight.

Knight said he couldn’t confirm Eckert’s presence on the plane. However, he said, the school postponed the scholarship presentation that had been scheduled for Friday. He said Eckert also had been active in a capital campaign fund-raising effort.

“She struck me as a wonderful, beautiful person who clearly wanted to do something to remember her husband in a way that would have an everlasting impact on our community,” Knight said.

Jay Winuk, who lost his brother in the World Trade Center attacks, said Eckert was “a terrific advocate for the 9/11 family community.”

Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed late Thursday about seven miles northeast of Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 passengers and crew members aboard and one person on the ground.

Also on the plane was Ellyce Kausner, 24, her brother Chris confirmed. The Buffalo News reported that she was a graduate of Clarence High School and Canisius College, who was studying law at Florida Coastal University in Jacksonville.

Historically, this was the nation’s first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in 2 ½ years. 49 people aboard and a person in the home were lost after the deadly landing.

According to the witnesses they heard the twin turboprop aircraft sputtering before it went down in light snow and fog around 10:20 p.m. Thursday about five miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., came in squarely through the roof of the house, its tail section visible through flames shooting at least 50 feet high.

“The whole sky was lit up orange,” said Bob Dworak, who lives less than a mile away. “All the sudden, there was a big bang, and the house shook.”

“Continental extends its deepest sympathy to the family members and loved ones of those involved in this accident,” Continental chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the family members and loved ones of those involved in the flight 3407 tragedy.”

The 9/11 widow on board was identified as Beverly Eckert. She was heading to Buffalo for a celebration of what would have been her husband’s 58th birthday, said Mary Fetchet, a 9/11 family activist.

Photo: Buffalo News

According to the first official news, the plane reported serious technical problems when it approached Buffalo airport. People who live near the crash scene said the sound of the engines was strange and shortly before the crash there was a thunderous explosion. Other witnesses claim the strange engine sounds had stopped for a few seconds, right before the actual crash at 10:20 pm.

After the plane crashed into a building, surrounding houses were also evacuated as they caught fire, too. The flames could be seen from miles away.

Photo: Buffalo News

The house the plane crashed into was completely flattened. Nobody on board survived the crash.

The airplane was a Bombardier Dash-8 (also known as DHC-8 or Q400), flying as Continental Connection Flight CJC 3407, operated by Colgan Air, registration number N200WQ, built in 2008.

Read more on Buffalo News.

By Szafi