Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Press Briefings from Clarence Center Emergency Coordinator and NTSB Spokesman; Reports From the Scene of the Fligth 3407 Crash

Aired February 13, 2009 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LUCE, WITNESS: There was an enormous explosion. It sounded like it hit, frankly, right in our backyard. We weren't sure where it had hit. But it was really two or three very quick explosions.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You -- the impact, did your house shake? Did you -- I mean, you live only a couple of houses away.

LUCE: The house shook. The windows shook. The ground shook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Witness to a disaster. An airliner crashes into a suburban Buffalo home killing all on board and one inside.

This hour, live reports from near the scene. The last words from the cockpit, what the witnesses heard, and what families are saying.

We are following breaking news this morning. It's Friday, February 13th. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS KAUSNER, SISTER ON PLANE: Right now, I'm thinking the worse. And I'm thinking about the fact that my mother has to fly home from Florida and what I'm going to tell my two sons. That's what I'm thinking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: We are monitoring a news conference that is just about to get under way any minute now. We're going to bring that to you just as soon as it begins. We believe it will be coming from some of the local officials in the Buffalo area there.

Let's go ahead and run down some of the facts now as we know them this morning. The plane Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey. The dead, one person on the ground and all 49 people aboard. The death toll increased by one just last hour when the company announced an off-duty pilot was aboard the plane. The cause of the crash, of course, not yet known. But whether ice on the plane's wings is among the possibilities is certainly something that everyone is talking about this morning. The plane slammed into a house on approach to Buffalo/Niagara International Airport about seven miles away.

It normally takes about an hour, 15 minutes to fly from Newark to Buffalo. Here's the path now Flight 3407 was taking. The crash site in Clarence Center. That's a community right outside of Buffalo. Witnesses say the flames from the resulting fireball could be seen for miles.

The explosion thundered through the small town of Clarence Center, New York. One resident said it felt like a mini earthquake. At least nine volunteer fire departments raced to the scene. The families of those aboard the flight gathered at the town's municipal center where they nervously waited for word.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAUSNER: I was driving right through town because I was on my way home from a soccer game. And they announced on the radio that they had set up a command station here, so...

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Chris, what has been going through your mind the last few minutes?

KAUSNER: Like I said, I really am just thinking about my mother. I -- my parents are on vacation in Florida and I had to call down there and tell my father what was going on and I'm -- just thinking about my mom.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How are they taking it?

KAUSNER: To tell you the truth, I heard my mother make a noise on the phone that I've never heard before. So not good. Not good. My sister was on the plane as far as we know.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She was due to come in on that flight?

KAUSNER: Yes. My other sister Laura was waiting at the airport. I heard on the radio that there had been a crash, so I called immediately to see if the plane had landed at the airport or not and, initially, she thought it had but it turns out that that is not the case.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was it Continental?

KAUSNER: Yes. She was on a Continental flight coming in from Newark.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were you able to get close to the scene at all or not?

KAUSNER: No closer than anybody else. I tried but they told me to come over here but any information would be coming out of here so. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What have you heard?

KAUSNER: Nothing. Nothing. They just said they are gathering information together right now and they really don't know anything.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What are you thinking?

KAUSNER: I'm -- right now, I'm thinking the worse and I'm thinking about the fact that my mother has to fly home from Florida and what I'm going to tell my two sons. That's what I'm thinking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Emergency officials say they will not publicly release the names of the victims until all of the family members have been contacted.

There's an awful lot to keep up with on this story this morning. And we do have crews covering all of the angles for you. Our Deb Feyerick is in Buffalo and Allan Chernoff is in Newark, New Jersey. We are also keeping an eye on our affiliates, of course, and have more details all morning long right here in the NEWSROOM.

In fact, we understand the press conference is beginning right now. Let's listen in.

DAVID BISSONNETTE, EMERGENCY COORDINATOR, CLARENCE CENTER, N.Y.: They will have a few comments in a second. Also assisting us in health and safety on-site are OSHA is now present. We appreciate that, along with the state police and Erie County sheriff. The security perimeter has been established. I mentioned earlier this morning. And I appreciate all of the press not going down to the scene. I appreciate that. We don't need the extra congestion down there.

Questions. Questions for me by a hand. Show a hand, please. You from there.

QUESTION: Do you have any more information about any of the victims? Where they were from? Any names?

BISSONNETTE: I don't believe that's been released yet. We still don't have a manifest released to the public. Steve may want to elaborate on that in a second, OK? Maybe hold that thought.

Yes, ma'am?

WILEY: And recently the FAA has changed their position on this. It used to be, as far as deicing, that you were supposed to wait until you had accreted some ice on the airplane to expand these boots and get rid of the ice.

QUESTION: What did you (INAUDIBLE) since your last update?

BISSONNETTE: We have the National Transportation Safety Board on location and they'll start to complete their investigation immediately. They are just getting their information from us and getting briefed on what we know.

QUESTION: Are all of the fires out and they're able to actually go into the site?

BISSONNETTE: No. We are still battling a hot spot. We believe we've got a natural gas leak within the scene and we're working with National Fuel to get that terminated so we can get in and cool this thing down to finish up that part of the scenario.

QUESTION: What have you gathered from witnesses that you were able to better put together a picture of what happened here? Is there anything you've gotten form any witnesses that able to lead you in a direction to what caused this crash?

BISSONNETTE: I'm going to defer to Steve on that question as well. Hold that thought.

Yes, sir, in the back.

QUESTION: Firefighters on the scene (INAUDIBLE) so (INAUDIBLE) for close to eight hours now?

BISSONNETTE: No, that is not true. We are rotating our personnel 2, 3-hour shifts. We've got nine fire departments working with us so that no one particular group gets overtaxed.

QUESTION: They've been on the scene since what time?

BISSONNETTE: We've been working since 11:00, 11:30, that's the time of the incident. Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Based on the scene there, is there any kind of estimate on when you will be able to start kind of getting through and investigating?

BISSONNETTE: If we're successful with the natural gas we're dealing with right now, mid afternoon at best.

QUESTION: Along the natural gas, did the firefighter (INAUDIBLE).

BISSONNETTE: Yes.

QUESTION: Can you talk about that (INAUDIBLE)?

BISSONNETTE: Yes, early on we felt that that was something fueling the fire. Since then, it's been determined that probably was just a result of the extra heat coming out of the seat of this pile of rubble and the natural gas is the real culprit. We're working to get that capped off so we can work in there.

QUESTION: Is hazmat at issue in your own (INAUDIBLE)?

BISSONNETTE: There is no hazmat issue. It's an explosion. It's a typical structure fire issue we deal with on a regular basis. Not a hazmat. QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) like that, that's not an issue.

BISSONNETTE: That's a nonissue. Yes?

QUESTION: Given the latest -- have you had a chance to see the debris field and maybe even see it from the air? How expensive is -- how far spread is the debris and how big...

BISSONNETTE: I can only tell you is a nonexpert that the debris field is very small. It's involving one structure, as I've been mentioning from the beginning. One structure completely destroyed with very little exposure to the other in the area. And that is pretty much confirming what we knew already overnight. Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Given the devastation, how long would you advise family members to be patient before individual victims can be identified and how will that be done?

BISSONNETTE: I'm going to let Steve mention this as well.

QUESTION: Is there any type...

QUESTION: Is there any sign of the black box or the data recorder of the (INAUDIBLE)?

BISSONNETTE: Too early. And we have not even gotten into the extrication and of the remains and the fuselage, et cetera. That's too soon.

QUESTION: Is there any type of indication as far as how long the family in that immediate vicinity will be impacted by evacuation orders?

BISSONNETTE: At least a day or so and we'll be working with them to accommodate their needs, their personal needs. All right, I'm going to defer to Steve with the National Transportation Safety Board. He can answer some of your very specific questions a little better than I. Steve?

STEVE CHEALANDER, NTSB SPOKESMAN: Good morning, everyone. Pardon me for being maybe if I've got the sniffles and so forth, it's pretty cold out there and I just came in from the outside. I'm Steve Chealander, C-H-E-A-L-A-N-D-E-R, and I am one of the five board members of the National Transportation Safety Board and I'll be the spokesperson for the next few days and working with you through this tragedy.

What I'd like to do right now is just tell you what we know. I would like to tell you the protocol and process that we'll follow and hopefully this will answer some of your questions. I've heard a couple of questions already about cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders and I'll tell you a little bit about that.

We arrived this morning on an FAA airplane about 8:30. We came in with seven people. The FAA airplane went back to pick up the other half of our team. We've got another seven coming in. They should be arriving in about 20 minutes and -- in the FAA airplane. We're going to have 14 investigators on scene. Inclusive of that will be transportation disaster assistance group which is to work with the families of the victims. They will work closely with Continental Airlines care team.

There's an 800 number that's published. We can get that for you for those families. They can contact Continental Airlines and we will assist in that regard. We also have, as I said, investigators from different groups, operations, survivability, et cetera. The investigator in charge for our investigation is Miss Lorenda Ward and she is right here and she is the one that's going to be in charge of the investigation from the NTSB perspective.

We also have a public affairs contingent with us. Keith Holloway is right here. He's going to pass out from the (INAUDIBLE). He's going to be your contact for the NTSB along with Terry Williams who's coming in on the second FAA airplane. They will give you phone numbers and everything you need to contact us and we will keep you apprised. We are going to have press briefings routinely like this and keep you up-to-date with everything we find.

Now I would like to talk a little bit about the protocol of what we find. That's -- and tell you the process and what phase we're in now. We're going through the investigation in a phase approach. We're going to -- we're in the fact-finding, evidence gathering stage as we speak.

As we just pointed out, the fire is very hot. It's still burning out there. The incident commander is in control. He's the one that tells us when we can go in and start our investigation. So as far as picking up pieces and getting all the things that we need to get to conduct our investigation, we haven't begun that yet.

With the exception of we've been allowed by the incident commander to go in and try to retrieve the black boxes, if you will, the two recorders, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. We have investigation on scene as we speak trying to get those recorders out. Our intent is get them out of here this morning and back to Washington and start the analysis of those as quickly as we can. That has not been done yet. We're attempting to do it.

That's about the extent of our process thus far. Once we're cleared into the scene after the fire is suppressed and it's safe to do so, then we will start that. As far as the victims that were involved in this accident, none of that has been cleared yet and the medical examiner is on scene and we've been talking with him this morning. As soon as he's cleared in, then they will start that process as well.

So the identification question and ask him the timing of that is very premature right now to try to come up with an answer to that.

QUESTION: Steve, the size of the plane, the minimal damage on the ground, what does that tell you about how this plane came down?

CHEALANDER: Well, that would be the analysis phase and we're not there yet. Again, we're just trying to gather facts, we're trying to get witness accounts. We're trying to look at ATC tapes to try to figure out all of that and we will maybe have some of that answered for you in the subsequent days. Right now, it's too early to tell.

QUESTION: Your team with the medical examiner's office, you work side-by-side once the fire is out?

CHEALANDER: We'll be doing our portion and they'll be doing their portions. So from that perspective, yes, we are working side- by-side.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Number of people? There's been some confusion as to the actual number...

CHEALANDER: What we've been told now is that there are 44 -- there were 44 passengers, four crew members and one fatality on the ground. And I just checked with the incident commander before I walked over here and that's still the count that we're going with. And that's still preliminary. We have not verified that by any type of account that we've done on our own.

(CROSSTALK)

CHEALANDER: I could -- that was about four questions, sir.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Hold on.

CHEALANDER: I won't talk about the safety record or anything like that. That's, again, getting into analysis phase and so forth. It was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. And we've got a November number if you'd like to add that. It's N200WQ. The number -- the tail number on the airplane is N200WQ.

QUESTION: Is there any chance? I know data recorders are built to withstand fires and impact. Is there any chance that there will not be data on there that tells you what happened?

CHEALANDER: Well, I would always say there's always a chance but we're hopeful that they will be intact. We don't know that yet. Hopefully they'll be intact. They can withstand on a lot of impact. The tail section of the airplane is relatively intact. And so they are trying to recover it now.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: What does the fact that the plane was literally hit one home in a residential neighborhood? What can you draw from that?

CHEALANDER: Again, that would be a conclusion and analysis and so I won't get there.

QUESTION: Is there anything you've ruled out? CHEALANDER: No. We're not to that point yet.

QUESTION: One more, one more question.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Can you talk about -- there was a report that this plane was delayed in leaving Newark.

CHEALANDER: That will all be -- that will all come out in our investigation. We 00 I've heard those news reports, too. And we'll look into that and see if that has any significance to our investigation.

(CROSSTALK)

CHEALANDER: I have not confirmed that, no.

QUESTION: Were there any...

CHEALANDER: And, again, just let me just say, I'm just trying to outline the process here for you. We don't have any factual information, other than the fact the airplane is down and it hit a house. And you know, I don't mean to be, you know, that succinct but that's really all we know. I'm just -- we're pointing the flag here to tell you that the NTSB is on the scene and when we can, we will have primacy on the accident and take everything into account.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Can you walk us through the...

QUESTION: What is the -- yes, walk us through the process when the fire (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: How many days?

QUESTION: And when you do get in. Tell us what exactly is going to transpire.

CHEALANDER: Well, all of these different groups that I told you about, investigators will be doing their jobs and collecting as much perishable evidence as we can get. Sifting through the accident and, you know, looking at everything. We're just going to be looking at everything. Everybody has got a job to do. We'll keep you apprised of what that job is and what we find from those as we go along.

QUESTION: Does anyone have any other questions for any one in the panel?

QUESTION: Can you tell us what you've seen at the site, sir? Can you tell us what you've seen? Describe for us what you saw when you got to the site.

CHEALANDER: I think that was already...

QUESTION: If you could repeat it for those who were not here.

CHEALANDER: He's already outlined it. It's a very compact area. It's a -- one structure involved. The house was completely destroyed. And it's in that yard basically where that house that the accident is confined.

(CROSSTALK)

CHEALANDER: No.

QUESTION: Did you separate it? Describe exactly...

CHEALANDER: No.

QUESTION: ... what the plane...

CHEALANDER: It was a major fire, an explosion so you can imagine after an accident like that that it's -- there's a lot of carnage there so.

QUESTION: Is there just a tail left? What is left of the plane? The seats?

CHEALANDER: Well, you folks will probably get a chance in the subsequent days to visit the scene and see for yourself. So, I'll just leave it to that.

QUESTION: But if you could just tell us exactly what is there now.

CHEALANDER: I've told you as much -- we've told you as much about the crash as we can tell you.

(CROSSTALK)

CHEALANDER: We haven't gotten that information yet. We'll get all that and get that to you when we do.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

CHEALANDER: We'll look at that as well.

(CROSSTALK)

CHEALANDER: We have a weather guy, a weather investigator that we brought with us. He'll look into all of that.

QUESTION: Steve, could you describe the general categories that you'll be looking at for possible causes?

CHEALANDER: No. COLLINS: All right. So we have been watching this press conference, as promised. We expected it to begin right at the top of the hour to try to get a little bit more information about where things stand right now.

Of course, we are not going to know anything about why this plane went down for quite some time but as you heard from the NTSB spokesman there, Steven Chealander, they, of course, are on the scene and are conducting a very thorough investigation as always done by the NTSB.

We will continue to stay on top of that, of course, for you just as soon as we get any information.

Want to go ahead and get the very latest now from our own correspondent on the ground. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is at the command center for the news conference with the very latest now.

Good morning to you, Deb.

FEYERICK: Good morning, Heidi.

You know the interesting thing about this press conference is while it was going on, we saw planes flying overhead and the constant noise of those planes coming over. Interestingly, when this crashed happened just a couple of minutes before, a Northwest plane landed successfully at 10:17. The crash of this other plan happened at 10:20.

Planes also were taking off at that time so it's unclear whether this was an icing situation, what happened, how it happened. We spoke to a number of witnesses who lived very close to where that plane hit. Here's what they described.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCE: It was an enormous explosion. I mean, it sounded like it hit, frankly, right in our backyard. We weren't sure where it had hit. But it was really two or three very quick explosions.

FEYERICK: You -- the -- the impact, did your house shake? Did you -- I mean you live only a couple of houses away.

LUCE: The house shook. The windows shook. The ground shook is the way it felt. It was a real blast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And there you heard from Mr. Luce. His wife said that immediately afterwards they ran from the house, hoping that perhaps they might be able to help, but they couldn't even get near the scene of that accident simply because the fire was so intense. It was so hot and it was consuming the home which burned to the ground in just a matter of minutes.

All of that now under investigation now. The NTSB investigators, other agencies have cordoned off that entire area. They're looking for anything. They've asked residents in that area also to keep an eye out, that if they see something they are to leave it exactly where it is and to notify an official so that they can pick it up and medical examiner also there on the scene to process whatever they discover during the course of this investigation.

As you heard, Heidi, right now, that's where they are. They are gathering the evidence, they are gathering the information. They are nowhere near being able to make any sort of conclusion on what happened and why this plane simply fell from the sky. Heidi?

COLLINS: All right. CNN's Deb Feyerick for us there at the command center.

Sure do appreciate that, Deb. Thank you.

The final moments of Flight 3407, the pilot talking to the tower. We're going to hear those tapes and talk with a former pilot about dealing with in-flight emergencies.

But first, Dave McKinley is a reporter for our Buffalo affiliate WGRZ. He arrived at the crash scene right after the plane went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE MCKINLEY. WGRZ REPORTER: We are standing about 100 feet away from where the plane went down. It's really tough to see because the smoke continues to billow from the wreckage which I can make out. We are, like I said, about 100 feet away from the wreckage that remains is right where apparently a house was up until this crash occurred.

And what we can see when the smoke clears at times is just blackened and charred wreckage scattered about where the firemen and right near where the flashing lights are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Let's run down the fact now as we know them this morning. The plane Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey. The dead, one person on the ground and all 49 people aboard. The death toll increased by one just last hour when the company announced that an off-duty pilot was aboard the plane.

The cause of the crash, of course, not yet known. But weather and ice on the plane's wings are among the possibilities. The plane slammed into a house on approach to Buffalo/Niagara International Airport about seven miles away.

Flight 3407 took off from Newark International Airport last night bound for Buffalo and CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is joining us now live from Newark this morning.

So, Allan, I'm just wondering what the mood is and if you've been able to talk to any passengers today out there at Newark?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, we have. And tremendous amount of anxiety. You know after a tragedy like this, all of us feel some concern, some anxiety because the fact is whenever any of us steps on an aircraft, our lives are in the hands of the pilot and that is precisely the sentiment that was on the flight this morning coming from Buffalo down here to Newark.

We spoke with one passenger who had not been on a plane since 1996. She got on that flight this morning, not even knowing of last night's accident, got a call from a family member while she was sitting on the plane before takeoff and she said that during the flight there was lots of anxiety of that time precisely during the flight. It landed just a little while ago.

Now the plane, Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, is actually a new aircraft, according to the chief executive officer of the company that operated the flight. Let's have a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIP TRENARY, PRES. AND CEO, PINNACLE AIRLINES: The aircraft is a new airplane. It's what we call a next generation turboprop. Very, very modern. It's an aircraft that has quality service. So no, no indications of any problems with the aircraft.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: So there really is tremendous mystery as to what exactly led to this crash and, of course, keep in mind, this was operated by Colgan Air, a subsidiary of Pinnacle Air even though it is run under the name of Continental but it's Continental Connection so it is not actually operated by Continental Airlines itself -- Heidi?

COLLINS: Sure. And we see that a lot these days with the some of the shorter flights and so forth.

All right, Allan Chernoff, for us live this morning at a Newark airport there in New Jersey.

The first sign of trouble was when Flight 3407 went off the radar. Until then, air traffic controllers say it was business as usual. The first officer showing no sign of stress in her voice. It was left to those in the tower, though, to figure out what had happened.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 34-7, approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 34-7, now approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta 1998, look off your right side about five miles for a Dash 8, should be 4300, you see anything there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Negative, Delta 1998, we're just in the bottoms and nothing off TKs. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo Tower, how do you hear?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) some ground communication. We need to talk to somebody at least five miles northeast, OK, possibly Clarence, that area right in there, Akron area, either state police or sheriff's department. We need to find if anything is on the ground. This aircraft was five miles out and all of a sudden we have no response on that aircraft.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can tell you is the aircraft's over the marker, and we're not talking to them now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me get right back to you, sir. But apparently we have an emergency and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, for all aircraft this frequency, we did have a Dash 8 over the marker that didn't make the airport. It appears to be about five miles away from the airport. There, Delta 1998, I'm going to bring you in, sir, on the approach.

If you could just give me a fire up when you get to 2300 and if you have any problem with the localizer or anything let me know. However we're showing that all in the green here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus, did you find Colgan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, they said he went down about right over the marker (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower Cactus 1452 is coming up on the clock and we saw the ground, you guys know what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus 1452, Buffalo Tower went to 26014 (ph), 23 to clear landing, yes, sir, we are aware.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COLLINS: As we now know the plane crashed into a home killing all 49 people on board and one person in that house.

Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed just a few miles from Buffalo/Niagara International Airport. So joining me now is a former Airbus pilot, John Wily, who's also a contributing editor for "Business Aviation" magazine.

In fact, John, you have flown all kinds of different aircraft. You've not flown this one specifically but are very familiar with the instrumentation and the way that the aircraft works.

Specifically talk to us a little bit here today about deicing and anti-icing because there are, obviously, two different systems here and two different conditions to use them under.

JOHN WILEY, FORMER AIRBUS PILOT: Deicing is you want to take care of the problem after it has occurred. Anti-icing is you want to take care of it before it occurs. The engines, parts of the airplanes, are equipped for anti-icing. There are other parts of the airplane, as one of the spokesman talked about a little bit earlier, for deicing. And recently the FAA has changed their position on this. It used to be, as far as deicing, that you were supposed to wait until you had accreted some ice under your plane to expand these boots and get rid of the ice.

Only recently that the FAA come out and say we'd for you to start using it at the first indication of any ice on the airplane. Go ahead and start using your deicing equipment.

COLLINS: And so when we hear that, you know, people at home may be thinking, all right, well, I've heard of deicing. I know that they, you know, get this hose out when the plane is sitting on the ground and they do what they need before we take off so that we can take off safely.

However, there is also in-flight deicing. Talk a little more about that if you will, so people understand what's taking place in the air and particularly in this case.

WILEY: On the wings, on the horizontal surfaces and on the vertical surface, you have -- basically what they are are balloons or boots. And they inflate and so if you've accreted ice, the idea is that you're going to crack that ice off.

Now, in this report, they told us that they were getting some rime icing. Rime icing versus clear icing.

COLLINS: Right.

WILEY: You've got two types of problems out there. When you start getting rime ice on the airplane it's sort of like coarse salt granules or pieces of salt.

COLLINS: That you can see better than clear ice?

WILEY: You then can see those, yes. And if you -- and I don't know if the Dash 8 has windshield wipers but from the cockpit you'll be able to see when you start accreting this ice. It's a clear indication and you know that you're in a situation. Few things get pilots' attention quicker than ice.

COLLINS: Yes. Absolutely. So when you see that, as the pilot, you do what?

WILEY: You would have already been using your systems because we start using the systems at 10 degrees Celsius, 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and when we're in the clouds, because we don't want this as -- as the air is moving over, we don't want to start accumulating this.

I mean, we have seen icing and temperatures up in excess of 50 degrees. You would normally think that you wait until you're 32 degrees F...

COLLINS: Sure.

WILEY: ... zero C, that's not the case.

COLLINS: No.

WILEY: 10F, I mean, 10C you start using your systems.

COLLINS: Well, then here's my question for you, because obviously, the FAA has very strict regulations and guidance as to when you should be -- you know, what temperature at that for you to be doing that as a pilot.

What about the reports of icing? I mean these pilot reports that are suppose to come in, are they not, to the air traffic control tower so that ATC knows, hey, you know, we've been getting a lot of reports tonight, icing is a problem at this altitude and, you know, we need to either steer clear or get people through it quickly as some of the other planes were able to get down?

WILEY: Yes. When you're talking about PIREPs or pilot reports, if there any anomalies out there, a weather condition, wind shear, icing and any of these problems that are going on, you want to go ahead and give the report now. You can give the report possibly to an en route controller and this is not to say that anyone was derelict in this but that information may or may not be passed on to the approach controller who is going to vector you into the airport area and it may not be passed along to the tower.

You've got a lot of people doing a lot of things and this information can sometimes get dropped. So when we hear, for example, they cleared the 3407 for the approach, contact tower, the next thing that we hear is approach control coming back, because 3407 didn't. Also, later on in the tape that you probably listened to, you'll hear one of the guys that is departing and he asks for unrestricted climb to 8,000 feet. He wants to get out of the ice as quickly as possible.

COLLINS: Quickly. Right. Right.

WILEY: Then they talk to Cactus, a U.S. Air airplane. He said that he's been picking up rime ice for the last 10 minutes. Did he report it to another reporter? I don't know. Delta also says that they were picking up icing on the area so...

COLLINS: Yes. Yes. Well, I think that -- that is a very, very interesting point. And again, we don't want to go down the road of speculation whatsoever.

WILEY: No, not at all.

COLLINS: But clearly that is something that NTSB will be looking at and they'll be looking at the flight data recorders as well on this.

We're going to have you stick around...

WILEY: OK.

COLLINS: ... and we appreciate you being here, John, very much.

He's going to be with me all morning long here to talk a little bit more about the information that we continue to get in as we continue to get more information here. Meanwhile, Rob Marciano is doing the same exact thing from over in the weather center.

And Rob, obviously, again don't want to go down the road of speculation but there has been a whole lot of talk about the weather and the icing conditions that may have existed during this flight.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, unfortunately, the atmosphere from about 10,000 feet to the surface was primed up for ice development. Relative humidity levels that were up at over 75 percent basically clouds between 10 -- 2 and 15,000 feet super cooled water droplets which have the ability in subfreezing temperatures to freeze on contact -- on the contact of any surface, be it a plane or otherwise. So that's one thing.

Obviously, there was precipitation. We want to quickly show you the radar first and I'm going to show you a cross-section of the atmosphere as seen by a weather balloon last night shortly before the crash.

All right, so everything goes from a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. There you see the different colors. Blue, pink and white, to all white by the time midnight or 1:00 comes around. So the atmosphere is kind of -- in a transformation mode from a warm atmosphere to cold top-to-bottom.

I want to show you this, which is a cross-section of the atmosphere. A little bit confusing but basically I want you to kind of focus on these parameters over here. This is a -- the weather balloon that they sent up at Buffalo at 7:00 p.m. last night. Temperature and humidity over here as it goes higher into the atmosphere. But what we're able to calculate and derive from these soundings are a couple of things that relate to aviation.

First off, this pink area is turbulence. And every time you see this bar get close to this line, we're talking about moderate to severe turbulence. And the -- part of the atmosphere that I want you to focus on is below this blue line because that is from roughly 6,000 to 7,000 feet to the surface. This green area, that is where rime ice is most likely to develop and that's moderate to severe and this area right here, right around where the plane was flying, what they call carburetor ice which forms in the carburetor or in the fuel injection engines near the fuel injectors. That also could be catastrophic.

So, unfortunately, the way the atmosphere was set up, Heidi, certainly conducive to ice forming on just about any surface be it a plane or anything that happened to be hanging out in it. So... COLLINS: Yes.

MARCIANO: You know, there's certainly a valid evidence to at least get the investigators to look at that first and foremost.

COLLINS: Absolutely. All right. Our meteorologist Rob Marciano staying on top of all of the weather situations that they were facing.

Sure do appreciate that, Rob. We'll check back later on.

Meanwhile, federal investigators are actually already at the crash site from the NTSB. We call them the go team, of course. So what clues will they be looking for specifically? We're going to talk to a former NTSB investigator and go-team member coming up in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: More now on the crash of Continental Connection 3407. The flight left Newark International Airport about 7:45 last night going down around 10:20 p.m., some seven miles from the Buffalo airport. All 49 people on board and one person on the ground are dead. An NTSB team is on the scene in Buffalo right now, of course, to investigate the crash.

We do want to show you the area where this crash took place. And how you can send messages to the victims' families if you are interested to doing that. For that we turn now to our Josh Levs.

Josh, good morning.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you.

Those are two of the first things we often hear in horrible situations like this. How can we contact people and how can we really see what it is that happened there.

I want to show you a couple of things. First of all, we're getting so many iReports, Heidi. And this is really interesting. This one comes from Anthony Dominguez. And we're putting them right out on CNN.com. I mean you can see the power of what he saw there. Now think of that as the after-picture. I'm going to bring you now to the before-picture.

We believe that is the house. This is Google and thanks to Google what they've created is this street level view. I'm going to take us on a little tour of the road where this happened. This is definitely the road. We believe that's the home where it happened. This is Long Street in Clarence Center, New York.

I'm going to zoom you a little bit down and what you can see here is pretty much just like any suburban road that you can see pretty much anywhere. And, you know, nighttime, boom, this happens to a quiet town just outside of buffalo.

I have a map for you here to kind of give you that context. Here's Buffalo. That A marks the city where it happened, this small town. Only 1,600 residents there.

And Heidi, you were just talking about how people can send messages to the families of the victims?

COLLINS: Yes.

LEVS: Well, the congressman who represents that area right here has his own Web site, Chris Lee, and what he has done is just kind of created a make-shift blog just for today. He's having people at his Web site, ChrisLee.house.gov, send messages and we have a graphic for you here. Just a couple of these messages that people have been sending to the families of the victims.

This one from Peggy Miller. Check it out. 2:00 a.m. "No words I could type could ever ease your grief, but I wanted you to know that you are in my thoughts and prayers." So we have one more here posted on the same blog from Erin Guest, a little after midnight there. "I can't believe this is happening in our backyard. My thoughts and prayers are with all the families and friends who have lost loved ones."

And, Heidi, right here at iReport.com, the top is on right now, we're hearing from more and more people. And I'll tell you all right now, if you have photos that are taken safely or videos of that crash, send them along but, also, if you just want to talk -- send some messages to families of the victims, say how this is impacting you, have a conversation about this, go ahead and send it right there, ireport.com, and Heidi, we will continue to share some of the messages right there on the air throughout the day.

COLLINS: All right, Josh, very good. Sure do appreciate that.

Josh Levs for us this morning.

LEVS: Thanks a lot.

COLLINS: Well, the NTSB go-team is made up of key investigators. Its focus to find out what caused this plane to go down. And joining us now by phone from Colorado, the former head of NTSB go-team, Greg Feith.

Greg, thanks for being with us. Obviously, we want to ask you because of your experience on the go-team what exactly happens right now. We know that there are seven investigators on the scene. What are they doing once this plane cools, if you will? Because we did have some information from the press conference that it's just plane too hot to get in there right now.

GREG FEITH, FORMER NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Well, Heidi, the biggest thing is to recover both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. From the pictures that I saw, it looks like the tail section may be relatively intact and away from that hot spot, if you will. So the investigators are going to see if they can get access to that area, see if they can get those two boxes back to Washington because the sooner they get the information off the CVR and the FDR, the better focused the on-scene team will be when they get into examining the wreckage.

COLLINS: Sure, because they'll know exactly what to look at by way of the wreckage and when you talk about the flight data recorder, maybe remind everybody a little bit about what type of information is going to be particularly helpful here. We're talking about altitude, attitude, even some information about the deicing system.

FEITH: Absolutely. This is a later generation airplane. It's a Q400, so the flight data recorder will have well over 200 parameters on it. It will give the investigators quite a bit of detailed information. It's not going to tell why the airplane crashed, but it's going to tell what the airplane was doing at the time that either the crew lost control or the airplane was flying through the trees and struck the house.

So it will tell investigators air speed, altitude, it will give them pitch, roll, yaw and give some position of the flight controls during various faces, second by second or quarter second, depending on what parameter it's recorded. So it's going to be an infinite number of parameters that will provide a good story line, as long as the data is good. If that box was in the middle of one of those hot spot fires...

COLLINS: Right.

FEITH: ... it could be compromised.

COLLINS: It could be damaged. Quickly, Greg, I just want your opinion on something that we have been talking about a little bit here. I'm not sure if you've been able to listen with John Wiley who's been sitting next to me, a very experienced commercial pilot and military pilot as well.

FEITH: I was.

COLLINS: We've been talking about PIREPs, otherwise known as pilot reports.

FEITH: Right.

COLLINS: And the FAA -- my understanding is, of course, requires that pilots report icing situations that they are experiencing or noticing on the aircraft.

FEITH: Yes.

COLLINS: Does the NTSB then also look at, of course, these recordings that we've already heard several times this morning between air traffic control and some of the other pilots in other aircrafts talking about icing and what they are noticing?

FEITH: That's going to be a focal point, Heidi. When I did the American Eagle ATR-72 in Roselawn back in 1994, that was an icing event, and one of the key elements of that investigation were the pilot reports that were provided by other airplanes that were holding in close proximity to 4184. So that is valuable information. And the NTSB will gather all of those PIREPs from the folks that were flying to see what type of ice, because the type of ice is also critical.

In Roselawn it was freezing rain and freezing drizzle. Here in Buffalo, who knows?

COLLINS: Yes.

FEITH: Because the temperature was a lot colder so you may not have that same type of ice but ice could be a critical factor in this investigation.

COLLINS: Absolutely. I also just wonder if then they will go the step further that we -- again, we're talking about with John. And that is, if there were pilot reports, were they handed down to the next person in line at ATC? Was that communication made that, hey, we have an altitude that's experiencing a major icing situation here? We've got to get the planes through that altitude to get them down safely?

FEITH: It's a twofold process, Heidi, because not only are the air traffic controller is going to provide that information to other flight crews, but it's incumbent upon the flight crew listening on the frequency to other airplanes reporting those conditions, because the controllers may get diverted, they may be handling other traffic and they may not do it in a timely manner.

So it's also incumbent on the pilot to listen on frequency to see if other pilots are reporting icing in the area that they are going to traverse.

COLLINS: All right, we sure do appreciate your time, as always. Former NTSB investigators and head of go-team, Greg Feith, for us this morning live out at Denver.

Greg, thanks again.

FEITH: You're welcome.

COLLINS: What we know about the aircraft that went down now. A look at the history of the Bombardier Dash 8.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Let's run down the facts now as we know them regarding the plane crash near Buffalo, New York. The Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey. The pilot, one person on the ground, and all 49 people aboard are dead. The death toll increased by one just last hour when the company announced an off-duty pilot was aboard the plane.

The cause of the crash, not yet known. But weather and ice on the plane's wings are among the possibilities. The plane slammed into a house on approach to Buffalo/Niagara International Airport about 7 miles away from the landing strip.

Now we want to take a closer look at the aircraft itself. Let's go ahead and bring in CNN special investigations unit correspondent Drew Griffin for more on that.

Hi there, Drew.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi.

We're looking at -- you know digging through all the records on this plane, and what we're being told by a lot of people this is a very, very safe airplane. The Dash 8 has a pretty good record. You have to dig deep to find out problems it did have, and we should say -- one of the pictures we're taking is the actual plane. The actual plane that was involved in this event. I believe it's that one right there.

That this -- this plane did have some landing gear issues, the Dash 8, which a company actually pulled it from its ranks. It was having problems with the landing gear not staying in place when it landed. But those were not considered major incidents or major crashes.

But one thing we did find was back in 2005. There was a Dash 8 100 model -- this is a 400 model today -- but a 100 model taking off from Newfoundland, and I think this is one of the incidents that I was talking about with the landing gear, and the landing gear wasn't engaging, there were some air-worthiness directives, and then you could see it would land on two wheels instead of three. That happened several times last year to one particular airline, and they pulled that aircraft out of their circulation.

But the incident in Newfoundland was eerily similar to what we're talking about here in Buffalo, New York. 2005, a plane Dash 8 taking off from St. John's, climbing through about 14,000 feet. The pilot was basically going through paperwork. The plane was on auto pilot. And all of a sudden he sees the stick shake indicator go on.

At that moment, the flight data recorder says the plane was in a stall. The next thing you know, this plane is dropping, and dropping fast. Pitching at 40 degrees, and dropping 4,000 feet in 40 seconds before they're able to pull it out of that dive. It is after they pull it out of that dive that they look, and see that they indeed have ice on the wings and it was ice build-up on the wings that caused that particular dive.

The saving grace there being that they were at 14,000 feet, and not 2300 feet. So they had time to dive -- literally dive out and regain control of that aircraft. So that's what we're finding on the Dash 8. But otherwise, a -- really a safe plane.

COLLINS: Yes, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that auto pilot, because, obviously, FAA has actually got some regulations on how many times you have to take it out of auto pilot when you're talking about flying in conditions like this in order to watch for that ice.

Sure do appreciate it, Drew Griffin, thanks very much.

GRIFFIN: Thank you.

COLLINS: Continental Connections Flight 3407 was operated by Colgan Airlines. Colgan was launched as regional airline in 1991. They operate not only as Continental Connection but also as U.S. Airways Express and United Express. Flight 3407 departed from their hub in Newark, New Jersey. Colgan also operates hubs in Boston, Houston, Pittsburgh, Washington and New York's LaGuardia Airport.

The last major airplane crash in the United States also involved a commuter plane. Con-Air Flight 5191 crashed on take off from Bluegrass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky. That happened August 27th of 2006. 47 passengers, two crew members died in that crash. Only the first officer survived. That plane was also a bombardier plane, but a different model from the one in the buffalo crash.

Investigators found the plane took off from the wrong runway.

We know statistically flying is a safe way to travel, but it's still, of course, not risk-free. Joining us now, our CNN's Josh Levs to talk a little bit more about that.

Talking about the dangers here, Josh, that people face, sort of every day. Every time they fly, and step on to an aircraft.

LEVS: You know, it's easy to be afraid of flying, and you hear a story like this, it's easy to be more afraid of flying. And one thing I want to do right now is kind of contextualize this. My point to what you were just saying which is that the reason this is such big news is that it's so rare. So very rare.

Heidi was just telling you about that last crash, let's go to this first graphic I have for you here. That tells you some of the key statistics here. There were no fatal passenger crashes at all, fatal passenger accidents in 2007 or 2008. And before that, 2003, 2006, there was only one each year. They ranged in deaths from 11 to 47. But if you just look at that for a second, what it's reminding you up here is how rare it is.

And this I find interesting, too, from the National Safety Council, check out their study. Chances of dying in a vehicle accident, one in 6500. Chances of dying in a plane accident, 1 in 500,000. So, again, we're talking about it being very rare. It's easy to get scared, but it is true but it is true and they say flying is one of the safest forms of travel, if not the safest.

And one more thing I want to show you here, because I was wondering if the government ranks different airlines by safety. Do they say who's safer than another? They don't. And this quote here is, "There currently is no evidence, and accident data, that would support the ranking of individual airlines based on their safety records."

And I was actually looking at other things, too. Around the world, it's really pretty similar. So obviously this is very scary, and it could have a tremendous impact on the way people feel on planes, especially being out of control. The truth is, it is so much safer than driving, statistically, and the truth is, the reason this is such a big deal, again, is that it is so rare.

And Heidi, I'll just mention quickly, that's why we're hearing from so many people today. The iReports at ireport.com. Keep them coming and throughout the day we're going to share with you everything that we get to help tell the tale of this story. Heidi?

COLLINS: Yes, and I'm glad you did that, because, unfortunately, when things like this happen, I mean, everybody says to themselves, boy, you know, that could have been me. And there's nothing different about me and my travel. So I'm glad that you had some of that information because everybody is really going introspective a little bit today.

LEVS: Yes, we all are.

COLLINS: All right, Josh. Thank you.

LEVS: Thank you.

COLLINS: The airline also issued a statement this morning, "Continental extends its deepest sympathy to the family members and loved ones of those involved in this accident. We are providing our full assistance to Colgan Air so that together we can provide as much support as possible for all concerned.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the family members and loved ones of those involved in the Flight 3407 tragedy.

President Barack Obama responding to the crash this morning. The White House released this statement a short time ago.

"Michelle and I are deeply saddened to hear of the tragic accident outside of Buffalo last night. Our hearts go out to the families and friends who lost loved ones. I want to thank the brave, first responders who arrived immediately to try and save lives, and who are continuing to ensure the safety of everyone in the area. We pray for all those who have been touched by this terrible tragedy to find peace and comfort in the hard days ahead."

President Barack Obama.

Reporter Dave McKinley from CNN affiliate WGRZ says all the smoke at the scene made it difficult to see the wreckage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE MCKINLEY, ON THE SCENE IN CLARENCE CENTER: It's hard to tell, Scott, because the smoke continues to billow. It doesn't seem to be spreading. Earlier, when we first arrived on the scene, it appeared through a wetting down other buildings, adjacent to homes and businesses nearby to this scene, I don't see them doing that anymore. It's just that that smoke, apparently, a lot of that wreckage may still be hot and as they pour water on, maybe more of it comes out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)