Instrument Showed Plane Near Ground, Was Actually About 2,000 Feet Above

Dutch investigators believe an erroneous altimeter indication played a role in last week's downing of a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

According to the BBC, Dutch Safety Board chairman Pieter van Vollenhoven told reporters the aircraft's autopilot was flying the approach to Schiphol. Investigators believe a problem with the altimeter led to a loss of airspeed, which in turn caused an approach stall.

Van Vollenhoven said the plane's altimeter showed the aircraft at ground level, when it was actually about 1,950 feet above. The autopilot, responding to the altimeter reading, throttled back the plane's engines in preparation for the landing flare and touchdown.

"The crew initially did not react to these events," van Vollenhoven said. When a condition warning sounded, he added, the crew attempted to throttle the engines back up.

"But the plane was too low at 150 meters," he said. "As a consequence the plane crashed 1 kilometer before the runway."

The Associated Press adds investigators also found the flight crew had noticed an error with the altimeter, but did not consider it to be a problem. Boeing had previously issued a warning about potential problems with the altimeters.

As ANN reported, nine people onboard were killed when the aircraft impacted a field short of the runway at Schiphol. The aircraft hit the ground tail first, and broke into three pieces from the force of the impact.

Fatalities included the captain and two other members of the flight crew. Dozens of the 127 people onboard were severely injured in the February 23 crash.

Investigators also noted a report by Turkish Airlines, stating the plane had been taken out of service two days before the accident due to problems with the aircraft's Master Caution Light program. Dutch authorities do not believe that problem was causal to the accident, however.

FMI: www.safetyboard.nl, www.ntsb.gov, www.thy.com