Shocking video: Boeing’s nosedive in Kazan captured, as cause of crash debated

RT News

Shocking security cam footage of a Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737’s nosedive has been released, just as a number of theories about the circumstances and causes of the crash that claimed 50 lives are still emerging. The black boxes have been recovered.

The footage shows just how futile any efforts at rectifying the situation must have been in those final moments. It is now up to experts to decipher the information found on the ‘black boxes.’

Two onboard recorders have been found – a voice-recording device and a parametric one.They have now been sent to Moscow for deciphering.

Experts have started work on the devices, the location of which has earlier been identified at the center of the hole created by the plane’s impact with the ground, ITAR-TASS was told by officials with the Tatarstan airline. An official told Interfax, however, that the recorders are badly damaged.

“The casing of the recovered onboard recorders has been badly damaged… but the black boxes have been passed on for decoding. Regardless of the great damage, I think we’ll be able to extract some information out of them,” the official said.

Pilot error, poor fuel quality, technical failure, poorly followed safety regulations and bad weather have all been blamed for the crash, although stories of the Boeing 737-500, its age and associated issues have begun to pop up as well.

Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov, speaking to the Voice of Russia radio station, said earlier that“until the Investigative Committee has finished its work, all five theories may be valid.” However, he added that the possibility of a terrorist act is out of the question.

Meanwhile, the investigators are preparing a list of questions for officials on the ground.

 

 

Although the pilots, both in their late 40s, were reportedly very experienced at their jobs, Russia’s Investigative Committee seems set on the view that the fault lies with them. Initially it was alleged that a mistake was made when carrying out a repeat circle before landing.

“The plane attempted to land several times. One of the [fuel] tanks detonated while the plane was landing,” said Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius.

It was subsequently discovered that one of the pilots had informed the control tower that making a second circle around the airport would be necessary, but then failed to follow the guidelines dictated back to him, according to Kirill Kornishin, one of the ground crew.

“[The pilot] told me he would attempt to perform another circle and I dictated the numbers to him – all according to procedure – and that was that. He confirmed the instructions, but didn’t deviate from his path. [The crash] happened mere seconds later,” Kornishin told Russia 24 TV, as cited by RIA Novosti.

The exchange started with the pilots reporting issues with the configuration of the landing gear.

Some attribute the fatal crash to the plane’s condition. It was over 20 years old and Tatarstan Airlines had planned to take it out of service a year ago. However, the airline claims there were no known technical problems with the aircraft before it took off on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, however, the same plane had flown from Kazan to Moscow, and passengers reported huge vibrations during landing.

One witness told RT earlier that she was “on board that same Tatarstan airplane from Kazan to Moscow earlier on Sunday afternoon. The flight itself went quite smoothly but, just before the landing, the plane started vibrating fiercely. Initially I thought it was the weather – but when we got out of the plane, it turned out the weather was quite nice. The plane was shaking; it was dragged from side to side. We landed on our first attempt, but it was a really bad landing and I felt like the plane was going to roll off the runway.”

 

 

Despite all this, the latest checkup, two days before departure, had found nothing wrong.

Another theory concerns questionable fuel quality. The aircraft had refueled before taking off for Kazan and authorities are currently analyzing fuel samples.

Before a team of experts have had a look at and decoded the information stored on the black boxes, no new headway can be made. Chief investigator Vladimir Markin told RIA Novosti that a number of other investigative measures are being carried out.

These include plans for a detailed probe into how the airline handled its own safety regulations, and whether authorities tasked with supervising the airline had themselves been adequate in performing their duties.

Furthermore, a little after 8:30am Moscow time, Markin also reported the discovery of a video detailing the moment of impact.

“A video was found and a detailed examination of the fatal trajectory of the plane is being carried out,” he said.

Supporting the view that all five factors discussed could have caused the fatal crash – pilot error, weather conditions, poor fuel, badly observed safety measures and the plane’s disrepair – Michael Weiss told RT that in the majority of cases, it is always a combination of factors:

“All of these factors are going to be looked at… there are going to be so many things looked at, keeping in mind that accidents generally don’t happen from a single event.”

http://rt.com/news/kazan-plane-crash-video-882/