Flydubai Flight FZ981 Crash: No Distress Call By Pilot, CEO Says Too Early To Determine Cause
Sneha Shankar | International Business Times
Mar 19, 2016
http://bit.ly/1pBH6RD

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UPDATE: 12:30 p.m. EDT — Investigators looking into the Flydubai Flight 981 crash in Russia have said that either mechanical failure or pilot error were the most likely reasons for the mishap, ABC News reported.

“Two theories of the plane crash are being explored ... The first one is pilot error in acting in difficult meteorological conditions, and the second is mechanical failure,” Oksana Kovrizhnaya, a representative of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Southern Transport Investigative Department, said Saturday, according to ABC News.

It was believed earlier that bad weather may have been the main cause of the plane going down. Wind speed at the time was recorded at about 40 mph. Killing all 62 people aboard, the plane crash can be seen in the background of a security video.

UPDATE: 6:20 a.m. EDT — Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said Saturday in a press conference, according to Reuters, that it was too early to speculate on what caused Flydubai Flight 981 to crash.

“We will have information about the circumstances of the incident and the black box in the future, and an investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Russian authorities and we are waiting to see the results,” Ghaith said, according to Reuters, adding: “There was no distress call (issued) from the pilot.”

The Reuters report also added that the Boeing 737-800 plane crashed on its second attempt to land at the Rostov-on-Don airport, killing all 62 people on board. The plane hit the ground and broke into pieces, resulting in a massive fireball at the site, the Guardian reported.

Ghaith also said in the press conference, according to Emirates 24/7, a Dubai-based news website, that Russian officials were leading the investigation into the crash. He added that the pilot of the plane had flown nearly 6,000 hours.“On behalf of everyone at Flydubai, I'd like to express the devastation that we all feel. Everyone at our company is in deep shock. Our hearts go out to all involved,” Ghaith said.

UPDATE: 3:43 a.m. EDT — Rescue officials have found one of the two flight recorders of Flydubai Flight 981, a Boeing 737-800 plane that crashed in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Sputnik news reported citing the Investigative Committee chief Vladimir Markin.