everyone wants to blame someone. people want to blame the pilot, but he did exactly what he was supposed to do; monitored the weather, requested a change in altitude, had the de-icing system on long before it clearly became a problem.
they want to blame the crew, but they, too, did everything right; checking systems, working to land by instrument and by sight, lowering landing gear at the right time, and trying to raise it again in the moments before impact – trying until the last second to fly as safely as possible.
they want to blame the maintenance staff, but the plane was merely eight months old; had no history of any major – or even greater-than-minor – complaints or problems to asses and repair.
they want to blame the manufacturer; but the plane was built in canada; where it’s not only easier to test and perfect cold weather flight equipment but far more routine because of it.
no one wants to place 100% of the blame on the weather. no one wants to make that connection between what we all see every day as we drive; that weather conditions can change from moment to moment; mile to mile. just recently as i was driving through the woodlands in the span of less than ten miles it was alternately clear, drizzly, and pouring down bucketfuls of rain that even on highest speed, my wipers could barely brush aside fast enough.
we’ve all seen a cold front roll in and watched the temperature drop 30 degrees in an hour. but yet – we can’t seem to reconcile that with the idea that if you’re flying though that kind of change at 250 miles per hour, you will in fact go though those changes instantaneously; and just as you may pass through them, those before you or after you may miss them altogether.
for to blame the weather instead of a person or persons is to admit that when you fly, there are always some elements that are completely beyond the realm of human control. if a plane crashes because the pilot was a drunken idiot; well, at least you’ll never be on a flight he’s piloting. and if a plane crashes because of some random maintenance issue, well, that crew or maintenance company will never work again so any plane you’re ever on in the future has a far greater chance of being just fine.
but to admit that sadly, frightfully, everyone that ever had anything to do with flight 3407 did everything they were supposed to in textbook style, and the plane went down only as a result of sudden and uncontrollable ice buildup is to admit that it can happen again, and there is a risk. and we don’t like risk. we like control. we have to know.
well, you can’t. you just can’t know everything.
to err is human, but you can't control the weather