ALISTAIR THOMSON, Abidjan | Saturday
IVORY Coast’s civil aviation chief said on Friday that human error caused by a false alarm probably caused a Kenya Airways plane to plunge into the sea moments after takeoff last year, killing 169 people.
Ten people on board the Airbus A-310 survived the crash just off the shores of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, on January 30, 2000.
Political upheaval in the West African country and the failure of the flight data recorder have meant the investigation has dragged on for over 18 months.
Civil aviation director Jean Abonouan told reporters in Abidjan the inquiry should be completed by the end of August.
He said the most likely cause of the accident was that an alarm indicating the plane had stalled went off in the cockpit even though the plane was not actually stalling, resulting in confusion and pilot error which caused the plane to lose height.
”It was a false alarm. ”He (the pilot) was busy trying to understand what was happening, and in doing so lost height.”
He did not say exactly what the pilot had done to make the plane lose height.
Abonouan said that although it appeared the stalling alarm had gone off in error, there was no reason at this stage to take any action regarding the rest of the Airbus 310 fleet.
He said he would travel to Nairobi with a team from France’s accident investigation bureau, which is assisting with Ivorian investigation, before concluding the inquiry. Kenya Airways officials could not be reached for immediate comment.
Families of those who died have repeatedly criticised the Ivorian authorities, both for being slow to react to the initial accident and get rescuers to the crash site one mile (1,6 km) from shore, and for taking so long to investigate.
Some families have begun proceedings against unspecified parties in a French court in a bid to find out what happened.
French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot said on Wednesday that the inquiry would be speeded up following complaints from families.
Investigators say they have been hindered because the flight data recorder failed to record anything, and the cockpit voice recorder gave little clue as to the cause of the accident. Much of the wreckage is still on the sea bed. – Reuters