{"id":110,"date":"2016-03-28T22:35:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T22:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianaviationnews.net\/decisionheight\/?p=110"},"modified":"2016-03-29T00:10:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T00:10:20","slug":"pilots-insistence-to-land-at-rostov-on-don-led-to-flydubai-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianaviationnews.net\/decisionheight\/2016\/03\/28\/pilots-insistence-to-land-at-rostov-on-don-led-to-flydubai-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot’s attempt to land despite captain’s objection led to Flydubai crash?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jacob K Philip<\/strong><\/p>\n

It could be an attempt by the first-officer to land at Rostov-on-Don itself \u00a0despite the objection\u00a0of the captain that led to the crash of Flydubai flight981 at the airport \u00a0on 19th morning, this month.\u00a0The transcription of the last minute of the two-hour long cockpit voice recorder points to this possibility alone.
\nThough Rossiya-1, a Russian \u00a0television channel, that leaked the transcription, has suggested that the crash was caused by an inadvertent activation of the elevator while the aircraft was climbing, an analysis of the transcribed voices \u00a0indicates something far more grave and intriguing.<\/p>\n

This was how the Channel had interpreted the CVR data:<\/p>\n

“The transcript suggests that the pilot lost control of the plane immediately after switching off the autopilot.\u00a0 The pilot accidentally switched on a stabilising fin at the tail as he tried to pull the plane back to a horizontal position. With this fin activated, the plane practically does not react to the pilot’s control panel. And thus the nose dive and crash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here is another paragraph from a news report based on this interpretation:<\/p>\n

“On the second landing attempt, the crew decided to pull up and try again, but 40 seconds after beginning the ascent, one of the pilots switched off the autopilot, possibly in response to sudden turbulence, the report said. Seconds after the autopilot was turned off, the plane plunged to the ground”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem with these analyses was that none of them had\u00a0 looked closely at the dialogues between the pilots. Instead, they went on assuming a lot of things regarding the auto pilot and the movements of flight control surfaces, without the backing of the data from the Flight Data Recorder, which was still being analysed. \u00a0The accidental activation of the elevator or a runaway \u00a0elevator\u00a0were mere assumptions without the backing of any proof.<\/p>\n

These were the sequence of events \u00a0that unfolded at \u00a0Rostov-on-Don that fateful\u00a0morning:<\/p>\n

Captain Aristos Sokratous (38) and first officer Alejandro Cruz Alava (37) \u00a0were not being able to land the Boeing-737-800 in harsh weather conditions. \u00a0They had tried to land once\u00a0but had to abort it because of\u00a0 poor visibility. And then began the extraordinary hovering\u00a0 that lasted well beyond two hours\u00a0 over Rostov-on-Don. Even as at least two other flights had opted for alternate airports (within 250 km), to the amazement of the ATC, Flight 981 opted to stay put. \u00a0\u00a0After \u00a02 hours, they decided to give it another try. But had to abort the landing again and they initiated a go-around. \u00a0\u00a0But within one minute, the aircraft fell almost like a stone and crashed, killing all aboard. The transcription of the CVR has the sounds in the cockpit during that last, tragic one-minute.<\/p>\n

The timeline and the voices:<\/p>\n