Warning-system failure may have contributed to the deadly plane crash outside Moscow on February 11

A warning-system failure may have caused the plane crash outside Moscow on February 11 that killed all 71 people on board. According to data recovered from the black boxes, the An-148’s sensors apparently froze, leaving the pilots oblivious to the aircraft’s actual speed.

Why didn’t the pilots de-ice the plane’s sensors?

The former general designer at the plane’s manufacturer, Dmitry Kiva, told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that the captain may not have received one of the cockpit’s warnings that his co-pilot hadn’t activate the sensors’ heaters, though he insists that at least one of the plane’s warning systems should have worked correctly.

Another source in Russia’s aviation industry told Moskovsky Komsomolets that the pilots’ actions were completely unsynchronized (the captain lowered the plane’s nose to gain speed, while the co-pilot continued to level the aircraft), suggesting that their instruments’ warning systems were likely malfunctioning.