Originally Posted by
JimInOhio
I have a family member who is a Q captain. He said there is absolutely nothing about the controls design that could contribute to a wrong crew response in an icing situation. In fact, he's read the Buffalo report very carefully (it was even part of his schooling) and he said it's blatantly obvious the crew messed up and that's all....
Again, the key points to me were that ERJ-145s fly higher and faster, typically spending less time in the icing environment, and are therefore a better choice when such weather is a possibility.
Statistically the risk is likely negligible (and flying a Q-400 is still better than driving, I'm sure), but there are differences between a prop and a jet in this context.