The series at its best.
A Brazilian-made Embraer twin-engined turboprop with two dozen passengers leaves Cincinatti, Ohio, for Detroit, Michigan, in January. Everything is fine until the landing approach when the airplane stalls and falls off on its left wing to plunge straight into the ground, killing everyone aboard.
The NTSB investigation that follows is staggering in its thoroughness, it's attention to detail. One by one, they check for possible causes of the accident and rule them out. However they notice that neither of the experienced pilots activated the de-icing boot, a rubber device on a wing's leading edge that expands and contracts, thereby breaking up the formation of ice that would reduce lift.
So they take a wing to NASA and use a wind tunnel to subject the wing to the same conditions of the flight. The wing accumulates enough thin clear ice to destabilize the airplane and lead to a stall.
But why had neither pilot activated the rubber boots that would have prevented the build up of ice? Because their manual didn't tell them to. The prevailing "myth" was that the boots took a long time to expand, permitting the ice to build up around and behind the boot itself. But technology had advanced. Boots now expanded and contracted in seconds and did precisely what they were designed to do. Neither pilots were required to ignore the myth.
The FAA is faulted for not mandating the use of de-icing boots properly in its instruction manual.
A Brazilian-made Embraer twin-engined turboprop with two dozen passengers leaves Cincinatti, Ohio, for Detroit, Michigan, in January. Everything is fine until the landing approach when the airplane stalls and falls off on its left wing to plunge straight into the ground, killing everyone aboard.
The NTSB investigation that follows is staggering in its thoroughness, it's attention to detail. One by one, they check for possible causes of the accident and rule them out. However they notice that neither of the experienced pilots activated the de-icing boot, a rubber device on a wing's leading edge that expands and contracts, thereby breaking up the formation of ice that would reduce lift.
So they take a wing to NASA and use a wind tunnel to subject the wing to the same conditions of the flight. The wing accumulates enough thin clear ice to destabilize the airplane and lead to a stall.
But why had neither pilot activated the rubber boots that would have prevented the build up of ice? Because their manual didn't tell them to. The prevailing "myth" was that the boots took a long time to expand, permitting the ice to build up around and behind the boot itself. But technology had advanced. Boots now expanded and contracted in seconds and did precisely what they were designed to do. Neither pilots were required to ignore the myth.
The FAA is faulted for not mandating the use of de-icing boots properly in its instruction manual.
