Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

A9
WORLD NEWS Wednesday 14 February 2018

Russia: Human error, faulty sensor behind deadly plane crash

conditions and the state of ence, largely in that model. blocked pressure sensors
the plane. Saratov Airlines, The aviation committee's responsible for air speed
which operated the plane, description of the Moscow indication, and erroneous
said its captain had more crash resembled the 2009 speed readings misled the
than 5,000 hours of flying crash of an Air France Air- pilot, who pitched the Air
time, 2,800 of them in an bus 330 over the Atlantic France plane sharply up in-
An-148, and the other pilot Ocean, which killed all 228 stead of down as it stalled
had 812 hours of experi- people aboard. Ice crystals and lost control. q

Emergency personnel collect wreckage of an AN-148 plane
crash in Stepanovskoye village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles)
from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018.
(Russian MES/AP)

By V. ISACHENKOV maneuvers and eventually
MOSCOW (AP) — Human took the plane into a dive
error may be to blame for at 30-35 degrees. It plum-
the Russian plane crash meted into a snowy field
that killed 71 people, Rus- outside of Moscow six min-
sian investigators said Tues- utes after takeoff, killing all
day, noting that the plane's 65 passengers and six crew
pilots failed to turn on the onboard. The committee
heating unit for its measur- said it is continuing to study
ing equipment, resulting in the data, but noted that
flawed speed data.After "erroneous data on the pi-
studying the An-148's flight lots' speed indicators may
data recorder, the Inter- have been a factor that
state Aviation Committee triggered the special flight
said that Sunday's crash situation." It emphasized
near Moscow occurred af- that the flawed speed data
ter the pilots saw conflict- resulted from the "icing of
ing data on the plane's two pressure measurement in-
air speed indicators. struments that had their
The flawed readings came heating systems turned off."
because the pilots failed to The RBC news outlet quot-
turn on the heating unit for ed pilot Andrei Litvinov as
the plane's pressure mea- saying the pilots probably
surement equipment prior took the plane into a dive
to takeoff, the committee because of low speed
said. The pilots had placed readings to avoid stall-
the An-148 on autopilot ing and didn't have time
after taking off from Mos- to correct their mistake at
cow's Domodedovo Airport such a low altitude.
but took its manual controls Earlier reports indicated the
back when they heard plane's captain had cho-
alarm signals warning of sen not to have the plane
conflicting speed data. undergo de-icing before
One indicator showed the takeoff. The crew decides
plane's speed at zero, in- whether to have the plane
vestigators said. The pilots sprayed by de-icing liquid,
then performed a series of depending on weather