May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Pinnacle Airlines Corp. pilots violated rules against unnecessary cockpit chatter minutes before a February crash near Buffalo, New York, that killed 50 people, a U.S. safety board said today.

First Officer Rebecca Shaw and Captain Marvin Renslow talked about flying experiences, careers and other matters unrelated to their tasks as they communicated with air-traffic controllers and went through a checklist for landing. The National Transportation Safety Board released a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder at a hearing in Washington.

Shaw noted ice on the windshield and discussed her limited experience with icing conditions when she came to the airline, saying, “I don’t want to have to experience that,” according to the transcript. “I’d have, like, seen this much ice and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to crash.’”

The talk runs counter to aviation procedures requiring pilots to focus on landing, among the most complicated tasks for a flight crew. Lorenda Ward, an NTSB investigator, said at the board’s hearing on the crash that the exchange on icing was part of about three minutes of unnecessary conversation during a critical phase of flight.

“Clearly there were violations of the sterile-cockpit rules” limiting conversations, NTSB Acting Chairman Mark Rosenker told reporters. “Critical phases of flight need clear and direct focus. Without that, there is a risk of mistakes.”

He said it’s too soon to determine what role the violations may have played in the accident, and the board remains in “fact-finding” mode.

Bombardier Turboprop

The Bombardier Inc. Dash 8 Q400 turboprop crashed Feb. 12 in Clarence Center, New York, as it approached Buffalo’s airport on a flight from Newark, New Jersey. The dead included one person on the ground and all 49 people on board the plane, operated by Pinnacle’s Colgan unit for Continental Airlines Inc.

NTSB evidence revealed that the pilots let the plane, approaching Buffalo at 2,300 feet, lose more than a quarter of its airspeed in 21 seconds after reducing engine thrust, lowering the landing gear and extending the wing flaps.

The drop tripped a cockpit alert warning of an aerodynamic stall, a condition in which planes lose sufficient lift to stay aloft.

In response to the warning, Renslow pulled the nose of the plane up and increased speed, according to the NTSB. It was an “incorrect” response, as he should have boosted speed while lowering the nose to avert a stall, Wally Warner, a Bombardier test pilot, told the NTSB at the hearing.

The cockpit discussions in question are “a violation of our policies,” said Joe Williams, a Pinnacle spokesman. “We follow the letter of the law” on all training programs, including ones designed to discourage cockpit chatter.

Rolled Left, Right

The aircraft rolled left, and then right, as a system designed to take it out of a stall activated. That system, called a “stick pusher,” forces the nose of the plane down to increase speed.

Six seconds after the warning sounded, the plane’s speed fell below 100 knots, from 180 knots about 30 seconds earlier, NTSB data showed.

Warner, chief engineering test pilot during the Q400’s development, was asked by Rosenker of the NTSB if the stall was recoverable with the appropriate pilot response. “Yes,” Warner replied.

The plane wasn’t affected by icing, and functioned normally even after “some ice” likely accumulated, the NTSB said in March. The pilots’ discussions on icing were unnecessary, the NTSB said today.

Flying Hours

After a voice is heard on the aircraft’s public-address system asking passengers to prepare for landing -- about eight minutes before the crash -- Shaw and Renslow discussed the dangers of icing and the number of hours they had flown before they were hired.

Shaw said that she “wouldn’t mind going through a winter in the Northeast before I upgrade to captain.”

Less than four minutes before the stall warning, Renslow told Shaw how an earlier-model plane he flew would “keep on truckin’” after accumulating ice, according to the cockpit voice recorder transcript.

After the crew said it completed its approach checklist and as little three minutes before the dive, Renslow resumed discussing his earlier flying experiences.

The NTSB, in a three-day hearing, is examining issues including stall recovery, pilot training and fatigue, and whether the pilots’ commuting schedules contributed to any tiredness.

Seattle to Newark

Shaw, 24, traveled from Seattle to work in Newark the day of the accident, according to NTSB evidence. She flew from Seattle to Memphis, Tennessee, aboard a FedEx Corp. plane, arriving at 2:30 a.m., then flew via FedEx to Newark, arriving just before 6:30 a.m., according to the NTSB.

Renslow, 47, commuted to Newark from his home in the Tampa, Florida, area, days before the crash, according to the board.

As of April, 93 of 137 Colgan pilots who were based in Newark commuted by air, according to the NTSB. More than half of those lived at least 400 miles away, including San Francisco, Miami and Portland, Oregon, according to the board.

Colgan policy prohibited crew members from using the company’s crew room for overnight rest, according to the NTSB.

The two pilots combined had 884 hours in the type of plane that crashed near Buffalo, including 110 hours for the captain and 774 hours for Shaw, NTSB evidence showed.

Pinnacle said yesterday that before joining Colgan, Renslow had three “unsatisfactory” small-plane flight tests with the Federal Aviation Administration. Two of those weren’t disclosed on his job application, and the company didn’t learn of them until after the crash, the company said in a statement.

Failed Tests

As a Colgan pilot, Renslow failed two flight tests, the most recent of which was 16 months before the accident, Pinnacle said. In both of the Colgan cases, Renslow received additional training and later passed the tests, the company said.

Pinnacle also said yesterday that it didn’t put its pilots through simulator training on the stall-recovery system.

The airline is based in Memphis, Tennessee, and operates regional flights with small jets and turboprops for other carriers including Continental Airlines Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc.’s Northwest unit.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 12, 2009 18:11 EDT