WASHINGTON – Safety investigators were told the pilot in the worst U.S. air crash in more than seven years had trouble learning a critical computer system of the plane he was flying.
National Transportation Safety Board records released Tuesday say investigators were told by one training instructor that Flight 3407′s captain “was slow learning” the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier, a twin-engine turboprop. But it said that pilot Marvin Renslow’s abilities “picked up at the end.”
The training instructor said Renslow struggled to learn the Dash 8′s flight management system, a critical computer.
On Feb. 12, Flight 3407 experienced an aerodynamic stall on approach to Buffalo in icy conditions and plunged into a house, killing all 49 people aboard and one man on the ground.