Irkutsk Air Crash Caused by "Human Factor": OfficialThe plane crash that took place near Russia's fareast city of Irkutsk on July 3, which killed all 145 people aboard, was caused by a "human factor," an official form the state probe commission on the tragedy said Monday.The catastrophe concerns the crew's mistakes, and "the specialists have no doubts about it," a commission official said here. "It is pretty obvious that the plane went into a spin" before it vertically dropped to the earth in a third emergent landing, the official told reporters under the condition of anonymity. The crew knew about it, as warning signals went off more than once, but continued ignoring them, violating piloting rules, he added. "The crew obviously did not listen to the voice information, either. It warned them twice that the plane was about to go beyond the limit angles of attack, and then it happened... Flight recorders registered this all," he said. The instruments were working fine. The engines worked until the plane hit the ground. None of the engines failed, he confirmed. However, Rudolf Teimurazov, deputy head of the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee, refused to comment on this version of the tragedy, and said Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, the head of the government probe into the disaster, will announce the official results of the investigation Tuesday. The ill-fated Tu-154 airliner owned by the Russian airline Vladivostok Avia crashed near Irkutsk at 9:10 p.m. Moscow time (1710 GMT) last Tuesday, when it was landing for refueling during a flight from the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. |
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