NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - For more than a decade, western New York-based Calspan has been examining how pilots deal with in-flight emergencies, similar to what happened during the final moments of Continental Flight 3407.
An airplane, traveling some 15,000 feet above western New York, is in big trouble. "I don't have control over this airplane. It's continuing to roll off."
The pilot must harness all of his experience and training to recover, before it's too late. "See that sliding, now I'm pulling notice. I can't control this."
Alarms are going off. The plane's stick shaker vibrates, alerting the pilot that the plane is going to stall. "There's the shaker."
He tries pulling back on the yoke to raise the nose. The plane's automation, known as the stick pusher, wants to lower the nose instead. "Now feel it how it's battling me."
A view from the cockpit window shows the ground closing in, as the plane rolls beyond what most commercial pilots ever experience during an actual flight. "You don't get that in a simulator."
Welcome aboard Calspan's in-flight simulator. It's a one-of-a-kind airplane, equipped with a programmable flight control system that teaches pilots how to recover from airborne upsets. Most pilots receive that kind of training in ground simulators. Calspan's techniques are taught in the sky, under real-world conditions.
Calspan test pilot Brian Ernisse said, "We've shown in our research studies that just doing this alone in a simulator without really paying very close attention is actually negative training. You could actually perform worse."
Over the past decade, the in-flight training, based in Niagara Falls, has been used for research, and to teach test pilots and corporate pilots potentially life saving techniques.
Calspan president Lou Knotts wants to make the program available to all airline pilots, especially those who fly for regional carriers. Knotts said, "We think they are most at risk. They're the youngest pilots, the least experienced. They have the hardest routes to fly."
Regional airlines have come under intense scrutiny since the February crash of Continental connection Flight 3407 in Clarence Center. 50 people died when the plane crashed on a house five miles from the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. Senator Charles Schumer said, "This terrible tragedy had an impact on the consciousness of America." (May 2009)
A National Transportation Safety Board hearing in May revealed that critical errors by the cockpit crew preceded the crash. As the aircraft was about to stall, the pilot pulled the nose up, according to testimony, when he should've pushed it down. Knotts said, "It was clearly a preventable accident."
Knotts believes the Calspan training could help prevent that kind of mistake from happening. The company's in-flight training offers a much different feel and experience than what ground simulation can provide.
Ernisse said, "I can take somebody, put you in the simulator and you're very, very good. And when I put you in the real airplane and give it to you for real, as a surprise, you're not so good."
Ideally, Calspan officials would like to see at least one person in every cockpit receive upset recovery training. Calspan Flight Research Director Bruce Magoon said, "Not some simulation, ground-based thing that does not have the real world flight environment, the real world stresses, those types of things; someone that's actually been through this type of training." Did inadequate pilot training play a role in the crash? Did the crew panic, not do what they were supposed to?
Tuesday night on News 4 at 11, the Calspan pilots simulate the final moments of Flight 3407 in the air, high above western New York.