NTSB Factual Report

On January 9, 1997, Comair flight 3272, an Embraer EMB-120RT, N265CA, crashed while being vectored for approach to runway 3R at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The flight was operated under Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135 and carried 26 passengers and 3 crew members. There were no survivors, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.

NTSB Probable Cause

The Federal Aviation Adminstration's (FAA) failure to establish adequate aircraft certification standards for flight in icing conditions, the FAA's failure to ensure that at Centro Tecnico Aeroespacial/FAA-approved procedure for the accident airplane's deice system operation was implemented by U.S.-based air carriers, and the FAA's failure to require the establishment of adequate minimum airspeeds for icing conditions, which led to the loss of control when the airplane accumulated a thin, rough, accretion of ice on its lifting surfaces. Contributing to the accident were the flightcrew's decision to operate in icing conditions near the lower margin of the operating airspeed envelope (with flaps retracted) and Comair's failure to establish and adequately disseminate unambiguous minimum airspeed values for flap configurations and for flight in icing conditions.