"With a fuel spill and a fire." The Federal Air Transport Agency has clarified the picture of the Superjet crash

The document of the Federal Air Transport Agency on the crash of an Aeroflot Superjet on May 5 at Sheremetyevo Airport, which came into the possession of RIA Novosti , raises even more questions for the pilots.

What's new

• There was an excess of the maximum landing weight of 41 tons, but a small one - by 1.6 tons.
• The aircraft was descending along the glide path in compliance with the speed specified in the Flight Manual (AFM) for the existing conditions: 155–160 knots (287–296 km/h).
• The commander of the aircraft, when landing, in violation of all the rules, strongly rejected the control stick “toward” and “away from himself”. He “performed several sign-variable deviations with a large amplitude control stick (up to maximum values), which led to sign-variable changes in the pitch angle (from plus six degrees to minus two),” the document says.
• The landing was made with a significant (900 m) flight. Already the first touch was on all three points of the landing gear and very rough (with an overload of 2.5 g), after which the plane bounced off the runway by two meters (“goat”).
• The second touch in two seconds occurred with an overload of 5.85g, which is beyond the limit for an aircraft of this type. A second bounce followed - already six meters - and a third touch with an overload of 5g. “Destruction of the structure followed by a spill of fuel and a fire,” the document says.
• On the run, the crew did not release the brake flaps. “In direct mode /“ minimum fcs mode ”, automatic release of brake flaps (spoilers) is not provided, the crew did not perform manual release,” RIA Novosti quotes the document. The spoilers on the Superjet are not flaps that reduce the speed of the aircraft on landing, and are used to reduce the mileage.
• The fire alarm for the tail-mounted Superjet auxiliary power unit was activated 4 seconds before the aircraft came to a stop, the fire extinguishing system was activated 24 seconds after that. The main engines were running on the already stalled and burning aircraft until the black box recording stopped after another seven seconds.
• The Federal Air Transport Agency recommended that airlines conduct training sessions with crews on emergency landings and actions in case of fire.

RIA Novosti reports, citing a source, that the investigation has no particular claims to the equipment, the main questions are to the crew. The agency specifically stipulates that this is unofficial information.

Read also Unprofitable plane: why the Superjet did not live up to expectations

Context. Aeroflot's Sukhoi Superjet 100, flying from Moscow to Murmansk, made an emergency return to Sheremetyevo Airport after a lightning strike and electronics failure and landed hard in manual mode after 28 minutes of flight. During landing, the landing gear broke and the engines caught fire, the fire quickly engulfed the tail of the fuselage. 41 people died. Causes of the disaster will not be named until the completion of an official investigation.

So far, the picture of the disaster indicates the wrong actions of the crew. However, the Superjet as a type has many of its own problems, which we have analyzed in detail .