AVIATION/ COLGAN BLAMES CREW FOR BUFFALO CRASH

COLGAN AIR says the probable cause of February's fatal crash in Clarence Center, New York, that claimed 50 lives was the Pilots' "loss of situational awareness and failure to follow Colgan Air training and procedures, which led to a loss of control of the aircraft." The Airline, in a 66-page report to the NTSB, also cited as contributing to the crash the lack of low-speed warnings in the cockpit instrument panel on the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop. But the Air Line Pilots Association, the union representing Colgan Pilots, said in its 62- page report to the NTSB that Pilot error did not cause the worst aviation crash in Western New York. Rather, the Pilots union said, a combination of factors caused the crash. And it cited Colgan for failing to adequately prepare the Pilots for the conditions that faced them on February 12, 2009, when the aircraft went into an aerodynamic stall and spun out of control. On February 12, Colgan Flight 3407 was on Domestic Service from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, on behalf of CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, with 44 passengers and 5 crew members onboard. The Dash went down in Clarence Center, while on final approach into Buffalo, killing all onboard. 1 person on the ground was also killed. The Pilots union said that Colgan was in too much of a rush to start new service from Newark-Liberty Airport using the new Q400s, and failed to adequately train its Pilots and provide them the proper operating manuals for the sophisticated aircraft. Colgan Air, for example, boiled down 4 pages of the Bombardier manual on flying in icing conditions to a single paragraph in the hastily put together Colgan manual, the Pilots union said. And despite Colgan's criticizing Bombardier for failing to include cockpit low-speed warnings in the Q400s, the Airline in January doubled its fleet of Q400s from the Canadian manufacturer by ordering another 15 of the turboprops at a cost of $422 million. The 2 reports were submitted to the NTSB on December 7, as the board continues its investigation. At stake is not only the safety of the flying public in preventing future crashes, but also the liability Colgan faces from the more than 2 dozen lawsuits filed so far after the crash. Colgan does not admit any shortcomings in its report, signed by the director of safety for Colgan Air. "Colgan Air has a robust safety culture. The company has operated since 1991 and has flown over 10 million passengers. Prior to this tragic accident, Colgan Air never had a single passenger fatality". But the Pilots union disputes that safety comes first at Colgan. "Colgan management consistently stated that "Safety Is Our No. 1 Priority,'" the union reported, "but their actions demonstrated that reliability and on-time performance were the true drivers."