Pilot negligence blamed for plane crash

27 November 2003

MELILLA – Pilot negligence was to blame for a plane crash in which four people died and 26 were injured, a report said Thursday.

A Binter Mediterráneo CASA CN-235 passenger plane crashed near Malaga airport because the crew failed to follow emergency fire procedures, investigators from the Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Committee (CIAIAC) said.

The plane was en route from Melilla, the small Spanish enclave bordering Morocco, to Malaga when the tragedy happened in August 2001.

A 200-page report into the disaster from civil aviation investigators blamed the crash on “negligence” by the crew who failed to properly “follow the emergency fire procedures involving the engines”, included in the onboard flight operations manual.

The crew’s mistakes led to the shutdown of both engines and a lost of thrust for the plane, the report said.

It also said there was a “lack of coordination” between the pilot and the co-pilot.

Investigators said a warning light came on indicating a fire started in the left engine.

But the warning proved to be a false alarm which could have been triggered by “moisture and/or dirt on the fire detection circuit connectors”.

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which makes a 30-minute recording on four audio channels, found no record of a conversation between the two pilots because of its bad quality – except for a few fragments of radio communication.

Later, Manuel Temboury, lawyer for three of the victims, said the lack of communication between the two pilots was because they were both of the same rank and there was no effective co-pilot.

He added that he was not surprised by the conclusions of the report.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news