Captain of illfated LAM flight accused of deliberately crashing the plane

GRUESOME DETAILS BEGIN TO EMERGE ABOUT LAM CRASH IN NAMIBIA

(Posted 22nd December 2013)

Reports are beginning to emerge about the last minutes of the ill fated LAM flight TM 470, which crashed enroute from Maputo to Luanda, killing all 33 passengers and crew on board on 29th November.

Detailed readings taken from the flight data and voice recorder, both of which were recovered and sent to the United States for analysis, appear to suggest that the captain of the flight, when his first officer had left the cockpit for a short while, locked the door from the inside and then disengaged the programmed route and programmed the aircraft to rapidly descend to below ground level.

Preliminary releases yesterday talk of the new flight path being recorded on the data recorder while at the same time the copilot tried to gain access to the cockpit, with what has been described as shouting from outside the cockpit and sustained banging on the reinforced door, which unless when opened from the inside is now nearly impenetrable following the events of 9 / 11 and the subsequent changes in aircraft safety and security measures which includes a secure cockpit.

Captain Dos Santos Fernandes is now the focus of an added investigation into his private life to establish if he had cause to commit suicide or made previous comments towards that end, was in financial or personal trouble, all aimed to establish a motive for this apparent suicide / mass murder.

No comments have been made by the airline since the Mozambique Civil Aviation released the particulars yesterday.

Initially the air accident investigation concentrated on the weather as having been a major contributor to the crash as torrential rains were reported from the area of the crash, while also looking initially at pilot error through loss of situational awareness.

The head of IACM, the Mozambiquean Institute of Civil Aviation, one Mr. Abreu, gave the details to the media in Mozambique yesterday, providing a horror scenario to the relatives and friends of those who died in the crash as a result of what now appears to be a deeply disturbed pilot’s actions.

LAM has been and continued to be banned by the European Union for flights into and across the EU’s airspace.

Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across Eastern Africa and the African continent.