Posted on 05/12/2010 3:03:18 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
Also, the aircraft came down about a mile short of the runway, roughly lined up with it.
}:-)4
so it exploded before wheels down ?
No, for whatever reason, it hit the ground about a mile short of the runway. What shape it was in when it touched down, that’s not known (or at least reported) yet. Apparently it was landing at sunrise, directly into the sun, on a runway known for having unreliable electronic navigation aids (and no vertical guidance). Not saying that there wasn’t potentially some foul play involved, but it’s also quite likely to be pilot error on the approach. It’s too early to tell.
The one thing that the professional pilots over at pprune.org (a UK-based pilot’s forum) noticed is that the wreckage seems awfully fragmented for a relatively low-speed landing crash. There aren’t many big chunks of aircraft left. They’re guessing that it may have cartwheeled, possibly the pilots realized they were low and tried to pull out in a turn and one wing hit the ground first. Again, just conjecture, it’s too early to know.
}:-)4
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