By KRIS HILL AND DENNIS BOX
khill@maplevalleyreporter.com
dbox@maplevalleyreporter.com
A Maple Valley woman and Tahoma High graduate, Rebecca Shaw, was the first officer on Continental Connections Flight 3407 that crashed near Buffalo, N.Y., about 10:15 p.m. Feb. 12. The National Transportation Safety Board reported all passengers and crew members died.
According to information provided by Continental and its carrier partner, Colgan Air, there were 44 passengers and five crew members on the plane including Shaw. One of the crew members on the plane, Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, was off duty at the time of the crash.
The NTSB reported there was one fatality on the ground.
Shaw was a 2002 graduate of Tahoma High School.
NTSB board member and spokesman for the investigators Steve Chealander said ice is one of the factors being considered as the cause of the crash.
Chealander said during a Saturday press briefing in Buffalo the de-icing system on the aircraft was “very sophisticated.” He said the federal investigators were not stating, “ice caused this accident. That is one of the focuses we have.”
According to Chealander the flight data recorder indicated the de-icing system on the plane was in the “on position, but we are not clear it was working.”
Chealander said the initial investigation indicated the aircraft did not hit the house nose first, but in a “flat situation. It is not oriented as a nose-down accident would take place.”
The spokesman also said the plane was oriented in the “opposite direction it was landing. It should have been southwest and it is oriented northeast.”
According to reports by Buffalo media outlets, Shaw, 24, had joined Colgan Air in January 2008 and had flown 2,244 hours with Colgan. She was also a certified flight instructor.
Shaw was copilot on the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, a turboprop airliner, that was flying between Newark N.J. Liberty International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International Airport when it crashed into a home in Clarence Center N.Y., during its approach into Buffalo. Media reports from the area indicates the plane crashed about seven miles from the airport.
Shaw’s mother Lyn Morris taught consumer and family sciences at Tahoma Junior High for about seven years before retiring in 2007 according to Tahoma School District officials. She still lives in the area.
Shaw was know as Beki according Dave Peters, Tahoma High School teacher and activities coordinator.
“It was my privilege to be able to be Beki’s teacher for four years,” Peters wrote in an e-mail sent to the paper. “She had a passion for service and traveled to Mexico on mission trips as well as being a leader at school with our leadership retreat and other service activities. Like all teenagers, she went through a period of confusion as to where she was headed in life. Then she latched onto the idea of becoming a pilot. From then on she had a purpose and a passion.”
Marie Page, also a Tahoma High teacher said, “She was an absolutely wonderful girl. We will miss her greatly.”
The NTSB has reported the airliner crashed during an instrument approach to the airport and the fight recorder has been recovered.
Linda Surette worked with Shaw through the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.
“She was a camper at our Girl Scout community camp (Wildside) at Camp Lyle McLeod for years and then moved onto working as a member of our teenage program staff,” Surette wrote in an e-mail. “Her energy, smiles, hugs and joy met so much to all of the staff and girls at our camp. She will long be remembered.”
