CRASH THEORY
Nepal pilot may have stalled plane after misjudging treacherous landing before crash killed 69, says expert
THE pilot of the doomed aircraft that crashed in Nepal may have misjudged the landing causing him to stall the plane, an expert has claimed.
Aviation expert Professor Ron Bartsch has suggested the reason behind the tragic crash that left 69 people dead may have been Nepal's thin atmosphere combined with a speed miscalculation by the pilot.
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Horror footage showed the Yeti Airlines ATR 72, which was flying from Kathmandu, veering to the left before smashing into a gorge in Pokhara in the Himalayas.
Speaking to Today Professor Ron Bartsch noted the plane appeared to stall in mid-air.
He said: "That terrain is terribly difficult to fly - very strong winds and high altitude.
"The runways are very, very challenging, some of the most challenging in the world."
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He explained that planes fly at faster speeds when travelling through thin air at higher altitudes such as in Nepal.
That happens because the air density decreases in high altitudes which lowers the engine's performance as there is less wind resistance.
However, planes burn less fuel in high altitudes.
He claims the pilot may have been tricked into thinking the plane was travelling faster than it actually was, causing the engine to stall.
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"Aircraft require air to fly in and the air is more rarefied at about 800 metres elevation there.
"When you're going over the ground, it may appear that you're going a lot faster over the ground than what you're going through the air.
"I'd suggest that the aircraft has entered into an aerodynamic stall...that's what caused this."
Spatial disorientation occurs when a pilot cannot correctly interpret the plane's attitude, altitude or airspeed in relation to their surroundings.
The expert also said a pilot error could have potentially contributed to the crash before adding that investigators would look at whether there had been "proper training."
“Normally aircraft don’t just fall out of the sky, particularly modern aircraft,” he said.
Sky News Aviation Expert Captain Byron Bailey agreed that stalling was the most probable cause of the crash as the pilot was "flying very slowly."
He explained that all Nepalese airports require special pilot certification because of their "steep approaches."
He said Nepal's steep mountains require a "steeper than normal" six-degree approach.
He said: "These approaches in Nepal because of the steep mountains require a steeper than normal six-degree approach whereas a normal approach would be three degrees.
"Which means you come down a steep angle at idle with the gear and the flaps down and what happens is at about 300ft you suddenly have to transition to a three-degree slope for the landing.
"If you're not sharp or one of the engines fails to spool up when you increase thrust to maintain the three-degree slope you could suddenly find yourself in a difficult situation.
"Basically the pilot lost control either through the left engine not spooling up fast when he wanted to increase power to maintain the three-degree slope or the pilot was too slow to react."
He added: "It is a case of aerodynamic stall, that the pilots obviously didn’t mean to happen but they did.
"The aeroplanes are fine, it’s just the pilots got to be a little bit sharper I think on what they’re doing because the approaches are very demanding.
The official cause of the crash has not been confirmed yet.
Horrifying footage shows passengers laughing onboard, moments before the plane crashed sparking a massive fireball.
At least 69 people have been confirmed dead, with authorities saying chances of finding any survivors are "nil."
Nepal began a national day of mourning Monday as rescue workers continued their search down the gorge where the plane crashed.
A flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder have been retrieved from the site and will be handed over to investigators, spokesman for Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority Jagannath Niraula said.
A witness who recorded footage of the plane's descent from his balcony said he saw the plane flying low before it suddenly veered to its left.
"I saw that and I was shocked I thought that today everything will be finished here after it crashes, I will also be dead," said Diwas Bohora.
"After it crashed, red flames erupted and the ground shook violently, like an earthquake. I was scared. Seeing that scene, I was scared."
Another witness named Gaurav Gurung said he saw the aircraft spinning violently in the air after it began descending to land, watching from the terrace of his house.
He said the plane fell nose-first towards its left and crashed into the gorge.
A total of 68 passengers and four crew are understood to have been on board the plane when it crashed at around 10.50 am local time.
Those on board included five Indians, four Russians and one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentine national.
The first one of the dead has been named as travel blogger Elena Banduro, 33.
She posted excitedly about her latest trip showing her on a plane with the message in English: "Go to Nepal".
The woman from Moscow was flying to meet her partner Maxim after she had told her family she was pregnant right before the flight.
Passenger Viktoria Altunina, 34, a teacher from Rostov-on-Don, snapped a haunting final picture of queuing passengers one hour before the crash.
She died with her husband Viktor Lygin, 38, and his cousin Yuri Lygin.
Australian Myron William Love is also feared dead as he was among the 15 foreign nationals on board.
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The man from Sydney, is a keen traveller, who loves surfing, cycling and photography, reports.
The accident is the small Himalayan country's worst crash in nearly five years when in 2018, a US-Bangla Dash 8 turboprop flight from Dhaka crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.
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