LAM CRASH INVESTIGATION’S PRELIMINARY FIND SAYS EMBRAER E190 WAS ‘SOUND’
(Posted 18th December 2013)
Preliminary air accident investigation findings appear to confirm that the aircraft used by LAM for the stricken flight TM 470 from Maputo to Luanda on 29th November, with all 33 passengers and crew on board killed on impact, was mechanically sound. The comments were attributed to the head of the Namibian air accident investigation team, who also confirmed that a full preliminary report would be issued before the end of the year.
The aircraft, delivered only a year earlier and with less than 3.000 hours flown, was undergoing regular maintenance cycles and this was the first crash of an Embraer E 190, prompting the global aviation fraternity to watch closely what the air accident investigation would unearth.
Should the full preliminary indeed rule out any mechanical problems of the aircraft, and all present indications are that this will be the case, the cause of the crash will then have to be explained by the weather conditions as well as in the way the crew reacted to the situation which eventually led to the crash. Cockpit voice and data recorders will almost certainly hold those clues to eventually determine the chain of events prior to impact and according to reports available both recorders were found intact and the data storage functioning. Both devices are presently undergoing analysis in the United States. Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across the African continent.
