LAM Embraer 190: Crash pilot went through tough times, his financial records never disclosed to investigators

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LAM Embraer 190: Crash pilot went through tough times, his financial records never disclosed to investigators

4:36 CAT | 21 Apr 2016

The Namibian / In this file photo, members of the police and Namibian army loading up the remains of the people who died in the plane crash.

Investigations into the Mozambique Airlines crash in which 33 people were killed in north−eastern Namibia in 2013 have found that the ill−fated aircraft’s pilot suffered personal hardships before the fatal incident.

The aircraft accident report released on Thursday last week also indicates that the passenger jet which crashed in the Zambezi region on 29 November 2013 was deliberately flown into the ground by the captain in charge of the aircraft after his co−pilot had left the cockpit to go to the plane’s lavatory and was then locked out of the cockpit.

Thirty−three people who were on board the aircraft were killed when the Embraer 190 jet on a flight from Maputo in Mozambique to Luanda in Angola crashed in the Bwabwata National Park.

A works ministry investigation team travelled to Maputo and carried out enquiries at Mozambique Airlines, the Institute of Civil Aviation of Mozambique, and the immigration department at Maputo International Airport, and also interviewed family members and friends of the two pilots.

The report says the captain who was in charge of the aircraft, Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, had gone through numerous personal crises before the crash.

The 49−year−old Fernandes was separated from his first wife and divorce proceedings had not yet been finalised after almost 10 years.

He also dealt with the death of his son, who died in a car accident on a suspected suicide mission on 21 November 2012. According to the report, Fernandes did not attend his son’s funeral.

His youngest daughter furthermore underwent heart surgery in South Africa not long before the crash which claimed the lives of Fernandes, five fellow crew members of the aircraft, and 27 passengers.

Although information on the financial and insurance position of Fernandes was requested from Mozambique through official channels, that information could not be obtained before the completion of the report on the investigation due to bureaucracy and legal hassles, it is stated in the report.

In its report, the Directorate of Aircraft Accident Investigations in Namibia makes some safety recommendations to the Mozambican civil aviation authority. This includes ensuring that the procedure of having two people on the flight deck of a passenger aircraft at all times is adhered to, as laid out in Mozambique Airlines’ flight operations manual.

The directorate also recommends that the International Civil Aviation Organisation establishes a working group which should look into operations and threats emanating from both sides of the cockpit door.

The ICAO is also expected to establish standards to implement recommendations of a working group, formed under safety recommendations, to avert the locking out of the cockpit of authorised crew members.

Another recommendation is that ICAO should establish a working group to review the installation of a visual recording device inside and outside the cockpit to provide information on who was in the cabin, who exactly was controlling the plane at the time of an accident, and even where their hands were in relation to the plane controls.

Furthermore, the directorate recommends that ICAO should expedite the implementation of international requirements on the global tracking of airline flights to provide early warning of and response to abnormal flight behaviour to ensure that search and rescue services as well as recovery and accident investigation activities are conducted in good time.

The ICAO’s working group should also speed up the research and implementation of aircraft tracking and localisation systems, other than the emergency location transmitter system.

Meanwhile, the director of aircraft accident investigations in the works and transport ministry, Ericksson Nengola, said that investigations into the crash of a Cessna 425 Conquest near Hosea Kutako International Airport on 29 January this year, in which three pilots on board were killed, are at an advanced stage.

Nengola said the report on that investigation would be made available to the public soon.

Source: The Namibian