BREAKING: Boeing 737 From Dubai Crashes In Russia During Landing

Flydubai flight FZ981 has crashed in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don killing all 59 passengers and crew on board. The flight was en route from Dubai and crashed during a landing approach.

Air-traffic control and local emergency services confirmed that the Boeing 737-800 jet crashed near the runway during a second approach in conditions of poor visibility.

“According to preliminary data, the Boeing 737 crashed in poor visibility conditions, some 50-100 meters left of the runway,” the source said.

All crew and passengers on board the plane were killed in the crash, according to the regional Emergencies Ministry."
www.rt.com...
www.bbc.co.uk...

alleged cctv of crash (it seems to be on fire before the ground?)


mobile.twitter.com...

Looks like it was already on fire before it crashed. How horrific.

That definitely looks like an engine fire and the aircraft seems to nose dive in to the ground. If they were trying to land, you'd expect a shallow angle, but it looks like it comes extremely steep. Maybe out of control due to the engine fire and couldn't maintain lift? Zaphod would have a more experienced opinion.
R.I.P. to the passengers and crew.

a reply to: DAVID64
yep..flew it straight into the ground.
weather doesnt appear that bad either.

originally posted by: Kentuckymama
Looks like it was already on fire before it crashed. How horrific.

im thinking that too that vid was from rt unless its wrong its defiantly alight

a reply to: autopat51

It doesn't take much to get into a spatial disorientation situation at night. It's possible that they thought they were still straight and level, and were nose down, rolled somewhat.

a reply to: Zaphod58
thats why they have a panel filled with instruments...
and what is that flame?

a reply to: autopat51

It would be far from the first time an instrument rated pilot got into trouble with spatial disorientation. A former Egpytian Air Force general, who was one of the only pilots to shoot down an Israeli fighter during one of the wars with them, got disoriented and flew the aircraft into the Red Sea and killed everyone on board, after he retired and went commercial.

They're reporting now that they had a tail strike on their first attempt.

Reeeeeally think it might be useful to know who was on that plane. Dubai to Russia? May as well say "no rules allowed".

a reply to: Zaphod58

I agree 100% just like JFK Jr. A sad story he flew straight into the ocean and had no idea he was nose down.

originally posted by: autopat51
a reply to: DAVID64
yep..flew it straight into the ground.
weather doesnt appear that bad either.

The fact that the Russians are claiming there was poor visibility, yet we see explosion quite in a fair distance... This rises my concern that there is much more to it than the "official story". Again they are lying to us.

The chain of events is also weird in itself:

Russia just pulled back most of their forces from Syria.
Dubai and Turkey wanted to invade Syria to support their funded rebels.
A plane from Dubai has crashed in Russia.
- Did Dubai officials came to Russia for negotiations?
- Who was on that plane?

I feel sorry for the crew and passengers that got caught in this, but I have no doubt it was no accident. Just look on how many "plane accidents" were with officials or scientists inside. We don't know the full story yet.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: autopat51

It doesn't take much to get into a spatial disorientation situation at night. It's possible that they thought they were still straight and level, and were nose down, rolled somewhat.

There are about 100,000 flights a day worldwide, some are landing in much worse conditions. In fact pilots in such approaches in very bad conditions or zero visibility rely only on the plane's instruments. It's a scary situation indeed, but commercial pilots are experienced enough to deal with extreme weather and conditions.

This wasn't the case, they pilots surely knew they were crash landing, in quite a steep angle (45deg?). You would feel great pressure where you are going so low so fast.

Interestingly enough there seems to be an actual debris field unlike Shanksville.
RT was reporting the plane hit the ground at around 400 KM/H or around 250 MPH.
RIP to those souls that were lost. This is also why I won't fly despite
the fact that statistics prove it's safer than driving.

a reply to: Shuye

And some crash due to pilot error in far better conditions. There's zero indication beyond your comment that the crew knew they were in trouble at all. I can think of several highly trained commercial pilots, in both bad weather, and perfect weather that screwed up and flew their aircraft into the ground and never knew they were crashing.

They were probably tired, it was 100% overcast, and they had to be getting pretty anxious to get on the ground. All that could be a huge contributing factor, especially when added to the winds and other weather.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So, why would the plane be a big ball of flames if it was simply spatial disorientation?
I note that you mentioned a "tail strike" on the first approach. In that case, wouldn't there be indication that the crew knew they were in trouble?

I could see them just screwing up and flying right into the ground....but, while on fire?

I'm not saying there's anything to it, more than simple error....just trying to figure out how spatial disorientation and a big ball of flames slamming into the ground works.

(I know close to nothing, besides what I read, about aircraft...btw)

a reply to: Jakal26

It wasn't on fire. The aircraft lights are frequently mistaken for fire in cameras like this one. The aircraft flew normally right up until the point it was slammed into the ground.

Based on new data today my gut says they flew into a microburst as they went missed approach.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Makes sense...
Thanks for the reasoned response.

the video is speeded up look at the car

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Shuye

And some crash due to pilot error in far better conditions. There's zero indication beyond your comment that the crew knew they were in trouble at all. I can think of several highly trained commercial pilots, in both bad weather, and perfect weather that screwed up and flew their aircraft into the ground and never knew they were crashing.

They were probably tired, it was 100% overcast, and they had to be getting pretty anxious to get on the ground. All that could be a huge contributing factor, especially when added to the winds and other weather.

I think you've hit the key point. They made one approach, which they "missed" which is the technical term for abandoning an instrument approach if you get to the "decision heighth" or "minimum descent altitude" and can't complete the approach to a safe landing. They then followed the missed approach procedure and were vectored to a holding pattern at the Rostoc VOR, which is an airport co-located very high frequency omnidirectional radio range. For some reason they held for over two hours before beginning the second attempt at the Runway 4 localizer approach. For some reason they abandoned that approach before reaching minimums, began to climd, and then rapidly (21,000 feet per minute) descended into the ground. Instead of flying in a hold for 2 hours, they could have flown to Volgograd, which has numerous precision approaches instead of the localizer only approach at Rostov. A very common problem is "get-there-itis" where you spend hours in pre-flight planning and enroute planning on landing somewhere. You don't plan on a mechanical glitch, or the weather, or airport contingencies getting the best of you and throwing a wrench into your plans, so you continue on with an ill-fated plan.

a reply to: F4guy

The only thing worse is gethomeitis.