Yak 40 crash pilot error

Uzbekistan said on Tuesday the crash of an Uzbek Yak-40 passenger jet which killed all 37 people on board earlier this month had been caused by mistakes made by the crew in conditions of limited visibility.
The Soviet-built plane, arriving on a domestic flight from Termez near the Afghan border, crashed in thick fog at Tashkent Airport on January 13 after missing the runway and hitting the perimeter fence, killing 32 passengers and five crew on board.
“According to the results of the investigation, confirmed by an experimental flight, the air crash was caused by mistakes made by the crew during landing,” a special government commission investigating the crash said in its final report published in official newspapers.
It said the crew had not switched in time to operate in conditions of low visibility, had not informed air traffic controllers of “substandard functioning” of some on-board equipment and had not tried to land at a clearer airfield.
“The crew overestimated their professional capability and continued to descend, thus violating flight regulations, in line with which in such a situation they should have gained altitude and headed to a reserve airfield,” the report said.
Government spokesman Malik Kadyrov said last week the crew were “experienced people” and some 90 seconds before the faulty landing the plane had lost communication with controllers.
Kadyrov said the probe into the accident had found that the crew’s silence had had nothing to do with a technical glitch. “It appears that they just did not go on air, while they could not see the runway,” he added.
Local insurance companies have paid USD$1,200 to the relatives of each of the 28 Uzbek passengers who died in the crash, while a Russian insurer has paid USD$20,000 for each of the four foreigners killed