According to a July 19, AP report “The operator of a light-rail train that crashed [in San Francisco], injuring dozens of passengers as well as the operator, came under scrutiny on Sunday as federal investigators tried to figure out why he turned off the automatic controls moments before the accident. Ted Turpin, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said that the operator switched the controls from automatic to manual in a tunnel near the West Portal Station and that he never engaged the emergency brake. Had the operator kept the autopilot on, Mr. Turpin said, the train would have slowed down before arriving at the station and most likely not have careened into a parked train while going 23 miles per hour.”
Continental Airlines Flight 3407
March 26, 2009
Unfortunately, on February 12, 2009, a plane crashed before landing at the Buffalo Niagara International airport.
The airplane that crashed was a bombardier Dash 8-Q400 twin-engine turboprop. Continental Flight 3407 was operated by Colgan Air, Inc. The path of the aircraft’s flight took it through weather that was