There is so much speculation regarding the weather conditions present for the Delta/Endeavor Airlines crash in Toronto, I would like to provide some perspective.
Please take a look at this from earlier this morning:
I don't care about the sex of the pilots, I care about their qualifications and abilities.
Ever since the crash, there has been speculation as to the role of wind or crosswinds -- if any -- and the accident. That's why I posted the wind data (below) in my initial report,
here.
The three above reports are aviation weather observations called METAR's. While it was a little less at the time the special METAR was taken because of the accident (middle report), there were peak gusts of 37 knots = 42 mph before and after. Some have called these "40 mph" or "extreme" crosswinds (the latter comment from the airport director). Not exactly.
Below is the runway diagram (red) of Toronto - Pearson Airport.
The plane was landing to the southwest (runway 23, blue arrow) and the wind was coming from west (270°, dark brown arrow). In order to determine the amount of crosswind the aircraft experienced (or as some describe it, "felt"), one must take the sine of 40° (the difference in wind angle to the aircraft's landing angle) which is .64. So,
.64 X 42 mph =
27 mph of peak cross wind gust.
While 27 mph of cross wind gust is not trivial, it is not "extreme" as some have described it. The temperature was 18°F which, for Toronto, is not extreme. Some blowing snow was reported (BLSN on the METAR) but visibility was 6 miles at the time of the crash.
I have nothing to add at this time except providing some perspective on the weather.
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