Video shows it going straight in; almost vertical. Looks like some sort of flash just before it hits. It was on it's second landing attempt. In clear weather. 'Orange' boxes were both damaged. Boeing airliner crash: Video shows tragic nose dive in Russia - latimes.com
something stopped the plane from flying, for it to auger in... it was night and it is hard to land any plane by braille, still why wasn't the plane flown to the ground...regardless of what it had to plow through would have been better, hopefully... there is no reason for the pilots to fly the plane into a stall... if the flight controls were functioning... why a go-around especially if there were mechanical issues... just get the plane on the ground especially if it already failed mechanically and breaks apart...it would have been better to save their collective souls...
Holy cow !! Surely there must have been some sort of catastrophic failure for it to nose dive in that hard. Lots of rumors about poor maintenance standards in the old USSR
Looks like a low altitude stall and the inevitable nose-in. Pilot error on the go-around attempt. No mechanical issues, at least so far. I thought also, as did 'Bubbles' that it might have hit a power line. Latest: MOSCOW (AP) -- The pilots of a Boeing 737 that plunged to earth at the Kazan airport, killing all 50 aboard, lost speed in a steep climb then overcompensated and sent the plane into a near-vertical dive, a preliminary report by Russian aviation experts reported Tuesday. The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees civil flights in much of the former Soviet Union, said the plane's engines and other systems were working fine until the moment the plane hit the ground Sunday night. It said the plane's two pilots had failed to make a proper landing approach on the first attempt and then began a second run. They put the plane's engines on maximum power, raising the plane's nose up at a sharp angle, causing a quick loss of speed. At the height of about 700 meters (2,200 feet), the crew then tried to gain speed by taking the plane into a dive but hit the ground at a near-vertical angle in a spectacular crash. The report drew its conclusions from data retrieved from one of the plane's onboard recorders. It said the climb and the subsequent plunge lasted only about one minute. The plane struck the ground at about 450 kilometers per hour (280 mph), the report said.
280 mph is plenty of flying speed, but it sure does not look like any attempt was being made to raise the nose. Sounds like they were spatially disoriented. Had to be a pretty terrifying minute for the passengers and the crew. This was supposed to be a very experienced crew, too, and weather was good with light rain. Makes no sense.
Pretty quick for an official answer. In Russia I expected ether the typical "Blame the pilot" or the ever popular "Blame the American Capitalist Pig airplane". We know their maintenance and operations are never at fault.
Have not heard anything like that for decades... you're a bit behind the times, I think. The Russian capitalists don't really call us capitalists any longer.
Not if Putin has anything to do with it. He really misses the cold war when real men stole their own vodka and real women lifted weights.
Is 2200' agl enough, barely, to recover from a stall in a 737? Maybe? Looks like they just froze, or panic struck and just augered straight in. Did not look like any attempt to pull up.
From the aviation herald "On Nov 19th 2013 the MAK reported that first read outs of the flight data recorder revealed that the crew did not follow the standard approach profile, went around due to considering the approach as unstable (attitude not within stable approach parameters), the engine thrust levers were moved to TOGA and the autopilot disconnected, the aircraft was under manual control for the remainder of the flight. While the engines accelerated to near takeoff thrust, the flaps were reduced from 30 to 15 degrees, the gear was retracted and the aircraft pitched up to about 25 degrees nose up, the indicated airspeed began to decay. Only after the airspeed had decreased from about 150 KIAS to 125 KIAS the crew began to issue control inputs to counter the nose up, the climb was stopped while the nose was lowered by control inputs. The aircraft reached a maximum height of 700 meters (2300 feet and began to rapidly descend until the aircraft impacted ground at a nose down attitude of 75 degrees at a speed of 450 kph (242 knots) about 20 seconds after reaching the maximum height of 700 meters. The engines were operating nominally until impact, the flight data recorders did not reveal any system malfunction. The cockpit voice recorder was not found inside its container, the assembly is missing and a search is under way." Anyone else find it odd that the voice recorder appears to have fallen out of its case ??
This whole thing smells fishy. There were some important people on board as well, but it sounds like terrorism isn't being considered.
The son of the President was on board, among others. Missing CVR... as Bob said, maybe it's been gone for years.
Hard to tell from the initial report - but engines at TOGA, no mention of throttle decrease or control inputs that would indicate they were trying to pull out of the dive after climbing to a stall (or near stall). Yeah, seems fishy.
Pilot may have had little and/or inadequate training. Russia: Crashed pilot may have had fake license Have a friend that goes to Russia and Georgia fairly regularly, that thinks he's OK if he only flies Boeing and Airbus... no Russian planes. Might rethink that...
And KPHL KCOS - United KPHL - US Air Both 73's. Both Landing. Both went straight in just like this one. Eventually blamed on a hydraulic actuator intermittently freezing up, (due to temps at cruise altitude ), causing a Rudder Hardover at an altitude from which a recovery is not possible. A third 73 experienced a Hardover during a descent but at a higher altitude from which they were able to recover. I believe all 73's were AD'd to have heated actuators installed. I think this is the first 73 to auger straight in during landing since that fix. It was an intermittent problem that took investigators a long time to duplicate. Maybe the actuator is not the real problem. The missing / uninstalled FDR tapes is very strange. Fishy. But, this is Russia.
...or it could just be a low altitude stall, which is what it looks like. Wonder about the flash of light just before it hits.
Marty- That rudder hard-over was fixed on the 737 fleet a long time ago. At least in the US and other 1st world fleets. Russia is a 3rd world country with a big military.
Agreed. It just seems strange that 73's seem to auger straight in during landings. I know nothing about the commercial heavy world. I just fly a little Citation SII Part 91 with a single pilot waiver. My cousin is a Delta 777 Captain and what little I know of the 121 world comes from him. I suppose it is anyone's guess if the Russians comply with AD's. As far as a stall is concerned, wouldn't a 73 have a shaker or pusher? Even if the pilot's had the minimum amount of training, they would certainly know what it means when the shaker or pusher goes off. Although, I guess the Colgan Dash 8 pilots over Buffalo, NY, ignored the pusher and all other signs of an eminent stall. Oh well, I guess there are only two people who know what really happened, and they aren't talking. With the airplanes attitude, speed, and power setting, could that flash have been a compressor stall? Unrelated. I don't know what make it is, but the Russians built an aircraft that looks very similar to a Boeing 727. My cousin jump seated on one of these in Canada. He said the rudder pedals actually said, "Boeing", on them. I don't fly commercially, but still if I did, if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.
