MOSCOW, November 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Sunday’s air crash of Boeing-737 jet in the Russian city of Kazan that claimed 50 lives remains the top story for Russian media.
A piloting error, a technical malfunction of the airplane, subquality fuel, incorrect work of the ground services and unfavorable weather — each of these reasons could have led to the air crash, Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported. Only one possible theory — a terrorist act — is already ruled out, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said.
The flight recorders, which fix all parameters of steering the airliner and the talks of the crewmembers should shed the light on the fact that the airliner was not prepared for landing and the crew decided to make another go-around, but failed to do it, the daily noted.
It is unclear whether the airliner started taking up the speed in another go-around maneuver, but the point of no return was already passed or, on the contrary, its speed went down. In any case, as a result the airliner ducked the nose at an altitude of about one kilometer above the runway and hit the ground. It has stuck into the ground in the vertical position that triggered a strong blow and a fire onboard, the Federal Air Transport Agency confirmed to Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily.
“The overwork of the pilots could have caused the air crash in Kazan,” Novye Izvestia daily has published the article under this title. President of the Sheremetyevo Pilot Trade Union Igor Deldyuzhov assumed to the daily that an error of pilots could have caused the tragedy over their tiredness due to overwork. He stated that frequently “the commercial companies neglect the flight safety in the pursuit for money.” “A break between the flights, weekly rest are not observed, 36 work hours a week, the debt for the vacations is enormous lately,” he said. “The pilots are working up to the limit; their attention and memory are becoming looser. I believe that it will be found out later the deceased pilots had too much overwork time and did not go on vacations. This is very important and could have become one of reasons of the air crash,” Deldyuzhov stated.
Moskovsky Komsomolets daily has published an article dwelling on the reasons why the pilots cannot fly by the end of the year. An aviation expert of the daily, current pilot of one of the largest air companies also has this point of view, “According to the order of the Transport Ministry, the pilots can fly for no more than 80 hours a month (or no more than 800 hours a year). According to a separate contract with the consent of the pilots, the limit of flying hours can be increased to 90 hours a month. More than half of pilots have already spent this limit.”
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