(Newswire.net — March 20, 2016) — Possible reasons as to what may have caused the FlyDubai pilots on flight FZ981 to lose control of the aircraft and hit the ground leaving no survivors are being investigated by the Russian Investigative Committee, Russia Today reported. Neither version considers a terrorist attack.
Human error during bad weather over the airport or a technical fault that caused the aircraft to dive almost vertically towards the ground, are being considered as the possible causes of the fatal crash of flight FZ981 in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, that left all 62 people on board dead.
Having already had an unsuccessful attempt to land gave the impression that nothing was technically wrong with FlyDubai’s Boeing 737-800 NG. The NG, which stands for New Generation, indicates a new type of aircraft, a modern version of its successful predecessor.
Another factor may be the severely bad weather and strong winds that make landings difficult. Two other airplanes were diverted to another airport where better weather conditions were present.
The Rostov airport was open for landing, which means that it met the minimum requirements for the safe landing of a modern aircraft, which is equipped for landing in harsh weather conditions with zero visibility on approach.
Under the circumstances, it is solely on the captain to make a decision whether to land or to go to the nearest airport with better landing conditions. While the captains of other airplanes decided to reroute, the flight FZ981 pilots decided to circle above the airport before the second and fatal attempt to land.
Both black boxes have been recovered and are now being studied, officials from the Russian transport ministry reported.
“Different versions of the incident are being investigated, including crew error, technical failure, bad weather and other factors,” the Investigative Committee’s chief Vladimir Markin said.
“We don’t know all the details but we know that the authorities are coordinating to better understand the circumstances around the accident,” Flydubai CEO, Ghaith al-Ghaith, said at a press conference in Dubai on Saturday.
Some experts suggest that the fact that the airplane dove straight down may indicate that the plane may have hit an air pocket that dragged it to the left of the runway center.
Reportedly, the plane tried to land at around 10:40pm GMT, but the first attempt was aborted. Then, according to radar information, the pilots flew in a holding pattern over the city for two hours, before they crashed on the left side of the runway.