The reasons for the sudden landing of the plane that crashed in southern China on Monday are a “puzzle” for airline pilot and captain Dominic Daust.
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“It’s not something you see in the aviation world, an airplane leaving its cruising altitude almost vertically to hit the ground,” he explains in an interview with LCN.
Although, at present, it is difficult to determine the exact causes of the accident, the pilot is trying to draw parallels with other similar events in an effort to better understand it.
But “again, there aren’t many examples of such incidents,” says Mr. Doust.
One example that comes to mind is the pressure problem that occurred with the Boeing 737 in 2005.
“There are some parallels we can draw now. It was the pressure that lost during the 737 cruise from Helios, Greece, in the mountains of northern Greece, and the crew lost consciousness,”
Perhaps this case, he says, can provide answers to the mystery that constitutes the crash of the China Eastern Airlines plane.
“This probably explains this type of accident in China where the crew loses consciousness and the plane continues to autopilot until the fuel runs out or the autopilot separates from the plane,” the pilot advances.
‘Extremely violent descent’
One of the only information on which the pilot can base his analysis of the event is the fact that the aircraft made a “very violent descent”.
“The normal rate of landing on a 737 or on an airplane is about 2,000 feet per minute. There, today, we’re talking about 30,000 or 31,000 feet per minute, so it’s a vertical incline,” he notes.
The airline’s captain said the wreckage may shed some light.
“One of the big parts of the investigation is to determine if there was debris really concentrated in the crater, the main point of impact, or if they found parts of the plane several kilometers away, it could indicate a problem with the structure or a problem with the mechanics that would have occurred On cruises,” says Mr. Daust.
