737 crash in Russia

Angle in the video looks pretty steep for a simple landing accident.... Maybe 30-40 degrees I would guess


Boeing 737 passenger jet crashes killing at least 55 passengers and crew in a fireball at a Russian airport | Daily Mail Online

 

It wasn't flying, it was falling.

 

What the heck! That is a steep angle for an approach! I agree. That is at least a 40 to 45 degree angle and unchanged to impact. I don't understand that one.

 

Agreed. It wasn't flying.
It was falling, fast.

 

Can a 737 land in 100 kph crosswinds? Apparently those were the conditions. Accounts I've read say that the plane didn't make a second landing attempt until 2 hours after the initial attempt. That's a very long time. Should it not have been diverted?

 

Photos (that I've seen) show only small pieces of wreckage.
I guess you'd expect that from the high angle of flight.

'Landed' on pavement short of the runway?

I aways wonder about language. Arabic crew ?? landing in Russia. Does everyone speak English.

 

Pilots were apparently Cypriot and Spanish, with 11K hours flying time. I'm really puzzled by the aborted first landing attempt, followed by 2 hrs circling (an extremely long time), then no attempt to divert (apparently), even though there are multiple airports within 30 minutes flying time. I'm sure there is intense interest in the black boxes, particularly the voice recorder. Hopefully they survived with data intact.

Also, the 2 hrs circling means that families awaiting loved ones were undoubtedly gathered awaiting the flight and may have seen or heard the crash - also very unusual. A cruel twist. My heart goes out to them.

 

They've found both. The question is will the Russian investigators get in the way of the investigation.

Seriously... you cannot trust the Russians when it comes to plane crash investigations.

 

It didn't occur to me that the airplane had perhaps stalled. It was flown by airline pilots, correct?

 

In my experience, the major Gulf carriers (Emirates, Qatar Air, Oman Air) have very competent pilots, usually European, British, or Australian. I don't know about the budget airlines. That said, i have never experienced a bad weather landing on one of the gulf carrriers.

 

Final thought - i wonder if the video is deceptive on the angle of descent. I can't see the body of the aircraft, only a light. Where are the lights on a 737?

 

When I saw the video, I thought the same thing....The decent is extremely steep to the point of stall...

It got me speculating that perhaps fuel exhaustion was a factor.

 

Maybe those are lights on the wing and the plane rolled violently to the right on approach? Just pure speculation on my part - no technical knowledge of aviation at all.

 

Port wing tip, red like port wine. Right wing tip, green. Tail light, white. Can't tell what color is in the video but whatever it was ,it was coming down steeply and quickly. When I was flying in the 40's and 50's the navigation lights often were lost in the clutter of the lights below.Big help when they initiated the flashing lights .

 

Hey guys. I am based in Dubai. The captain was a friend of mine. I am devastated. Been trying to deal with this all day today. We don't have any answers but I know for a fact that the flight crew was very competent. Most theories I heard from other pilots are about a stall due to very high winds while trying to climb following a second failed landing attempt. I will update once we know more. There are rumors that the airline didn't allow the pilots to divert to another airport because Rostov wasn't officially closed and just asked them to hold despite the very bad weather and high winds. The airline didn't want to cover the cost of landing in an airport that they didn't have a contract with and all the associated costs. Like I said before, nothing is confirmed, these are just some theories floating around here in Dubai. RIP to all the passengers and crew. Especially to my buddy Aristos. I am off to bed as I am not in very good shape right now. Will post updates once we hear something concrete.

 

Mario,

Sorry about your loss.

What a small world it can be on this forum.

 

Hope they figure out what happened with the data. It does seem like circling for 2 hours is quite a lot. That also does not look like anywhere near a landing attempt.

 

Sorry man.... I wondered why they didn't divert....But two hours circling concerns me.

 

Other links here, with photos of the crash scene (runway) in daylight:

Crash: Flydubai B738 at Rostov on Don on Mar 19th 2016, missed runway after holding for 2 hours

B-738 Crash in Russia Rostov-on-Don - PPRuNe Forums

Many comments mention very high winds, possibility of strong wind shear. Also conditions might indicate potential icing on flying surfaces, after 2 hours of pattern low/slow in rain and snow. Plane was aborting a 2nd landing attempt and starting a go-around; may have lost stalled if iced and/or wind shear?

 

Be good to get more facts.. surely no crew would want to circle for 2 hours waiting for retry 2nd landing.. if it's that bad and that long a time a divert would surely be your preference?

 

Sorry about your friend. Fact is we all have lost someone, and if your're in aviation long enough it will happen unfortunatly.

 

Here is a diagram of lights on a 737.

Jacob

 

Very sorry for the loss of your friend. Two hours is a ridiculous amount of time to hold especially in bad weather. If he was in a hold for two hours, that means he had plenty of fuel to go somewhere else no matter what the airline told him. That never-the-less is neither here nor there. My thought after looking at the angle of descent makes me wonder if this could be another infamous 737 rudder hardover.

 

It seems impossible to me that an airline can over rule the decision of a pilot on where to land safely.

Sorry it just doesn't make sense to me.