Maker Looks at Speed of Doomed Plane

Moments before a Comair commuter plane plunged into a snowy field, killing all 29 people aboard, controllers asked the pilots to slow down so a jetliner could pass overhead, the maker of the smaller aircraft said. While investigators refused to comment on the report, it bolsters the theory that the twin-engine turboprop Embraer 120 was accumulating ice on its wings and was going too slowly to stay aloft under such conditions. Michael Gearhart, Embraer’s vice president of marketing support, said his information came from an Embraer employee working with investigators.