March 16, 2018
A preliminary report on last month’s Aseman Airlines crash finds pilot error to be the chief cause, saying the pilot was flying at 14,000 feet although air traffic controllers had assigned him to an altitude of 17,000 feet.
It said the preliminary reading of the flight data recorder shows no equipment failure, such as an engine conking out, that could have forced the plane to fly lower than instructed.
The plane struck the Dena Mountains, a 50-mile long range with more than 40 peaks that exceed 13,000 feet. The highest is 14,465 feet. All 65 passengers and crew on board were killed.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization released its preliminary report on the crash with the qualification that more remains to be learned from the flight data recorder.
The report suggests that the team tasked with probing into the incident is currently unable to present a definitive conclusion from the investigation into the February 18 crash of the ATR-72 plane built by a Franco-Italian company.
But the report firmly ruled out a technical cause. “Technical fault should be excluded from the possible causes of the crash,” it said. “The engines also functioned according to the pilot’s directions.”
The following findings were mentioned in the analytical section of the report:
• The pilot descended to 17,000 feet as directed by the control tower, but further descent to 15,000 and 14,000 feet was against the directions.
• The chief pilot had medical restrictions for flight, which were not taken into account by Aseman Airlines. The pilot was 62 years old and had undergone open-heart surgery previously. It didn’t say what the airline failed to do.
• The pilot should have flown at an altitude of 17,000 feet until reaching the airport
• The system giving alarms about frost on the wings and fuselage was not in ideal condition and should have been checked in the pre-flight maintenance work. This negligence by the maintenance company cannot be condoned. If the anti-frost alarm system on the wings and fuselage had been active, it would have been possible to control the aircraft. That seemed to conflict with the firm conclusion against any technical cause for the crash.
• The necessary technical work had not been carried out on the plane due to sanctions. Sanctions, however, were lifted 25 months before the crash.
Although a month has passed since the crash, rescue teams have still been unable to bring down all the bodies owing to frequent foul weather at the site of the crash, including snow and fog.