rebecca shaw is the first officer of the flight 3407
source:http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6261565.html
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She was one of the pilots. Ms. Shaw was the First Officer, also known as the co-pilot, of this flight.
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Flight 3407? I've been in a news black hole since I left work last night. (I work in news, so I tend to avoid it on off-hours.)
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The crew members were identified as Capt. Marvin Renslow, pilot of the plane; Rebecca Shaw, first officer of the flight; and flight attendants Matilda Quintero and Donna Prisco.

Another employee of the airline, Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, a Jamestown resident who was off-duty at the time, was also killed.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/577959.html
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Typical procedure is for the 2nd in command (in this case Rebecca Shaw) to have the controls during any flying off of auto-pilot, such as approaches and departures. Exceptions might be if they were having difficulty, but this particular incident happened so quickly that she was most likely at the controls when the emergency began, and the captain probably took over during the pitch and yaw oscillations before impact that have been reported by the NTSB. When and if they release the cockpit voice recordings listen for him to say 'I've got it' or words to that effect. That would confirm it.
Source(s):
msnbc.com, nytimes.com, ntsb.gov, newsweek.com

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jimmyhisself; I don't think you are on track here. The co-pilot was talking to Air Traffic Control on the radio. She was most likely the non flying pilot unless Colgan Air does something different than the rest of the industry.
Source(s):
21 years of aviation experience, over 10,000 hours of flight time, 7 years of operating experience flying aircraft for a major airline and 1 year with a small commuter as the basis for my answer.

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In the airline industry one pilot is the flying pilot while the other operates the radios. The pilots swap duties with each leg they take, so every other flight the copilot flies the plane while the Captian operates the radios and navigates. This allows for a safer envoronment under high work loads. In this case Rabecca's voice is on the ATC tapes thus she was not the flying pilot.
Source(s):
AOPA
Personal experience

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