Challenges Assertion That The Pilot Flew The E190 Into The Ground On Purpose

An aviation accident investigator in Mozambique has challenged the official preliminary report from an accident November 29 that asserts the pilot flew a Mozambique Airlines (LAM) E190 into the ground to commit suicide.

The accident in the Bwabwata National Park in northern Namibia fatally injured all 33 people on board the airplane.

The investigator is Antonil Alves Gomes. He was interviewed recently on the African independent television station STV, according to the website AllAfrica.com. He said nothing proves that the captain of the airplane intended to commit suicide despite the claim in the preliminary report that his action showed a "clear intention" to crash the plane.

Gomes said that the captain followed procedures in Embraer's manual for the airplane in setting the altitude selector, throttle, airbrake, and velocity selector consistent with maneuvers specified for an emergency descent. "Everything that the pilot did coincides exactly with what is in the manual." he said, adding that the "real question" is why the emergency descent was necessary.

Gomes admits that it is against published procedures to begin such an emergency descent when both pilots are not in the cockpit, and the first officer on the flight was absent when the descent began.

The report also mentions that a sound like someone banging on the cockpit door was heard on the CVR, but Gomes said there are ways to open the door from the outside if it is necessary. He said it seemed to him that the members of the Commission of Inquiry had not read the manual for the airplane.

(E190 pictured in file photo)

FMI: www.embaer.com