In the cockpit of Colgan Air's Bombardier Dash 8-Q400, Captain Marvin Renslow, 47, and his co-pilot, 24-year-old Rebecca Shaw, chatted about job goals, personal problems and their fears about ice accumulation while flying in winter.

The conversations were a clear violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airline policy rules prohibiting non-essential discussions when flying below 3,048 metres.

The transcript, released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), revealed the final moments inside the cockpit before the dramatic crash that killed all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground.

In the last minutes of the flight, the turboprop flew too slow for safety and the crew received a stall warning knowing as a “stick shaker”. But instead of revving up the engines and lowering the plane's nose, Renslow did just the opposite, pulling back on the controls and raising the nose.

What followed in the cockpit came fast before the tragic ending. At 10:16 pm, as the engines could be heard increasing their power, Renslow exclaimed: “Jesus Christ”.

A panicked Shaw said “I put the flaps up” before asking, eight seconds later, “should the gear up?”

”Gear up, oh (expletive),” Renslow replied.

And then, the inevitable, “We're down,” the captain said, before the sound of a thump could be heard.

Shaw had the last word: “We're,” a phrase she never completed, followed by the sound of screaming.

The aircraft stalled, rolled over and crashed onto a house in Clarence Center, New York, eight kilometres short of the runway, around 10:20 pm, transforming into a ball of fire.

Flight 3407's cockpit recorder transcripts were released as the NTSB, the US federal agency charged with investigating civil aviation accidents, held public hearings from Tuesday through Thursday into the crash.

About seven minutes away from the scheduled 10:25 pm arrival, the pilot and his co-pilot made small talk about Shaw's head congestion as the plane made its descent.

Notably absent was any discussion about the conditions of the flight for which they were responsible. But they did talk about icing as they approached snowy and misty Buffalo.

”Is that ice on our windshield?” Shaw asked Renslow.

”Got it on my side. You don't have yours?” he replied.

”Oh yeah. Oh, it's lots of ice,” she responded.

But the pair then returned to extraneous discussions, punctuated by laughter. Shaw, the co-pilot, mentioned how little experience she had with icy conditions.

”I had more actual time (with icing) on my first day” with Colgan Air “than I did in the 1,600 (flight) hours I had when I came here,” after early flight training in the hot southeastern United States, she told the pilot.

”I really wouldn't mind going through a winter in the Northeast before I have to upgrade to captain.”

In the past, Shaw said, “I would have freaked out” about icy conditions. “I would have like seen this much ice and thought: oh my gosh, we were going to crash.”

But the NTSB said that ice accumulation had not significantly impacted the aircraft.

While they continued their conversation, Shaw and Renslow seemed unaware that the plane had dramatically reduced its speed and risked going into a stall.

NTSB investigators suspect that Renslow and Shaw did not correctly operate the ice-protection system, and therefore incorrectly programmed approach speeds into a flight computer.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people close to the matter, has reported that Renslow, who joined Colgan Air in September 2005, had a history of flunking periodic tests of competency.

Also at issue was whether Shaw, who had complained about being congested before takeoff, was too tired to fly. She had also traveled across the country from Seattle, Washington on the West coast on an overnight flight, landing in the early hours of the morning of the accident.

Shaw, who had complained before takeoff about being congested, probably should have called in sick, it added.

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