Hi EveryoneI was recently (6 months ago) in Lexington KY and used the Blue Grass airport. I was saddened to hear about the CRJ crash there a couple of days ago and have been following the story on CNN and their website since.Interestingly they have an Ex NTSB Investigator using what looks very much like FS9 (right down to the red parking brakes notification) to demonstrate to a reporter how the take off would have looked and what went wrong. The reporter claims it's special software (ok deep down we all know Microsoft Flight Simulators are special) and then says that they're in a CRJ. The panel looks like the stock 737 400 panel. On the big screen they've "blued" out the FS9 bar...Here's the link to the video:java script:cnnVideo('play','/video/us/2006/08/28/todd.ky.crash.pilots.view.whas','2006/09/04');I was wondering if this is something they do regularly or just for show to journalists?My deepest sympathies to the families of those killed in the crash.Regards,RobFAJS

Given the technical competence of most journalists dealing with aviation matters these days, I would say the NTSB got one of their seve year old sons or daughters to do it for the media, while they got on with more important issues of actually finding out what caused the tragic accident, even though the media know already. The journalists wouldn't know any better if you showed them a Spitfire and told them it was a Seven-Three-Seven. ;)On one of the unimportant news channels they referred to the CRJ as as a `turboprop` and the number of basio mistakes made on dedicated aviation-related programming has now got to the point where I can't watch the channel. I laugh too much. :)Allcott

First - the video has nothing to do with the NTSB - the "expert" is one of thousands of pilots, or other specialists who has worked with the NTSB at some point in the past. He might even possibly have been an employee at one time.I find it interesting that they used an AI aircraft and the default B737 panel, so apparently the expert doesn't have access to a real simulator.They also show the default FS2004 configuration of the airport, not showing the changes made to Rwy 4/22, the closed taxiway A between Rwy 26 and the now unusable FS2004 start position on Rwy 22.Kevin Au, an ERJ-145 pilot who flies into KLEX, made a very informative post on the other thread on this crash.It's worth the time to read it.

One other point - when the NTSB does their work - they will have access to the full motion simulator the crew used for training, and/ or Bombardier's best.They will not need Flight Simulator.

I don't know about the NTSB but the Canadian Department of National Defence uses FS as part of their suite of analysis tools when investigating aviation accidents. See this article: http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/op-ed/ed385.htm

Interesting little video at cnn there... The panel he uses looks more like the learjet stock panel, but the model is a CRJ100 at least... that IS FS9, no question...I couldn't get the link to work, so if anyone else is having problems, try mms://wmvod.mgnetwork.com/vod/wtvq/060827_pc12.wmvThe news team describe the guy as "having experience in training on flight simulators"... well, I suppose that is the FS community!All speculation... I would be interested to know how many FS users have tried something like this already...Good luck to the investigators, and I hope they can understand this crash quickly and make some recommendations to improve flight safety...God speed to the families and friends of those lost in the tragedy. My thoughts are with them...Andrew