Flight Crew Errors Played Role in Crash

The National Safety Transportation Safety Board said that a critical pre-flight error by the pilots was a key ingredient in the Feb. 12, 2009 plane crash at the Buffalo airport. The pilots entered contradictory information into the cockpit computer system, while chatting about  non-essential topics during the flight. The first officer sent text messages from the cockpit before take-off and was suffering from a bad cold. The captain, who had a prior history of training problems, was criticized for having acted inappropriately to the plane’s alarm system. (2/01) NY Times