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Pilot error blamed for Russian crash

A plane that went into a 20-second tailspin before slamming onto the airport tarmac in Russia crashed because of pilot error, aviation authorities say.

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A firefighter walking at the crash site of a Boeing 737 airplane at the airport of Kazan, western Tatarstan. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Pilot error was to blame for the crash of a Boeing 737 in Russia that killed 50 people, the country's aviation authorities say.

After deciding to abort a landing in the Russian city of Kazan on Sunday, the crew failed to pull up the plane, sending it into a tailspin from which it did not recover.

The Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates air incidents in Russia and most post-Soviet states, delivered its findings in an interim report on Tuesday.

The report did not mention any technical faults.

The plane, belonging to Tatarstan Airlines, was flying between Moscow and Kazan, some 800km to the east of the capital.

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The committee report said that the pilots, who were flying the Boeing manually, lost control of the plane. It then went into a 20-second tailspin before crashing head-on onto the airport tarmac, killing everybody on board.

The impact speed was more than 450km/h, the report said. Footage from an airport closed-circuit television system shows the plane crashing almost vertically into the ground and exploding in a huge fireball.

The organisation says that its report is based on the plane's flight data recorder and that the search for the cockpit voice recorder is still underway.


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