Colgan rushes to Manassas after N.Y. plane crash

Colgan Air, Inc. a Manassas-based company, operated the plane that crashed Thursday night near Buffalo., N.Y., killing 49 people on board and one on the ground.

State Sen. Chuck Colgan Sr., D-29th District, along with 16 investors in 1965 organized the organized a company that would become Colgan Air.

While Colgan, 82, no longer owns the company that still bears his name, he rushed back to Manassas Friday from Richmond skipping Friday’s floor session. According to the Associated Press, the longtime pilot was shaken and devastated by the news of the crash.

Colgan said he knew the four-person crew who died in the Thursday night crash, according to AP.

“At this time, the full resources of Colgan Air’s accident response team are being mobilized and will be devoted to cooperating with all authorities responding to the accident and to contacting family members and providing assistance to them,” Colgan said in a statement Friday morning.

Colgan said it was working with local authorities to confirm the identities of those who were on Continental Connections flight 3407.

Colgan set up a telephone line for relatives and friends of those traveling on the flight. The line was (800) 621-3263.

In 1970, Colgan’s company began scheduled airline operations between Manassas and Washington-Dulles and Poughkeepsie, NY.

In 1986, the company was sold to Presidential Airlines out of Dulles. When that company went out of business in 1991, Colgan and his son Mike organized Colgan Air, Inc. and went back into business with one airplane.

The company grew and became Continental Connections with an agreement with Continental Airlines in 1997. In 1999 it also operated as U.S. Airways Express and in 2005 as United Express.

In 2007, it was bought by Pinnacle Airlines Corporation for $20 million.

The parent company is a regional airline doing business as Northwest Airlink. With the addition of Colgan Air, Pinnacle Airlines provides service as Continental Connection, United Express, US Airways Express and Northwest Airlink.

Colgan Air operates 38 SAAB 340 and 15 Q400 aircraft, all turboprop commuter planes. It employs more than 1,300 airline professionals. In 2007, Colgan Air served more than 2.5 million passengers, according to its Web site.

Before it was acquired by Pinnacle, a Colgan Air commuter plane crashed off of Cape Cod, Mass., in 2003 killing the two pilots on board. They were no passengers on the plane.

Maintenance performed on the plane, a Beech 1900D twin turboprop, was performed shortly before the accident. The incorrect installation of pilot control gear was identified as the cause. This prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to order changes in the maintenance manual of the Beech 1900 series planes.

The Continental Connection aircraft that crashed Thursday near Buffalo was a Q400 turboprop.

Bloomberg News reported this morning that the plane that crashed was built in 2008 and had been in service for less than a year. Bloomberg said the aircraft, registration number N200WQ, was ordered by Memphis, Tenn.-based Pinnacle Airlines Corp. in 2007 and handed over to the carrier’s Colgan Air unit on April 16 last year, according to the Ascend Online Fleets database.

A Pinnacle airlines official said Friday that the commuter plane had a clean safety record, leaving investigators few immediate clues about why it suddenly plunged into a house minutes before its planned landing, killing 50 people, according to AP.

The aircraft crashed Thursday night about five miles from the runway, near the point where a pilot would begin setting the plane up for landing.

Skies were foggy and winds were 17 mph, but there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary and no mayday call, according to a recording of air traffic control radio messages captured by the Web site LiveATC.net.

Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-878-8010. The Associate Press contributed to this story.