At least 62 plane passengers of FlyDubai Airlines flight FZ981 including its 7 crew members were instantly killed when the jet burst into flame and exploded mid-air while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don airport, Russia on Saturday. It was the second attempt of the pilot to land the plane but the aircraft crashed and blown into pieces.
In the initial investigation released to the journalists, the Boeing 737-800 operated by Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai reportedly hit the ground and broke into pieces. Majority of the passengers were purportedly Russian nationals.
Several versions pointing the cause of the crash were reported by international news agencies. Some investigators believe that it could have been caused by crew error, technical failure, or the bad weather that was happening when FlyDubai flight FZ981 was on its way to land at the Russian airport.
An independent US-based Flight Safety Foundation shared a partial report citing the occurrence of a strong wind of 43 kilometres per hour (with gusts up to 69 kilometres) at Rostov-on-Don.
On the other hand, Russian air crash investigation team released the conversation of the commericial plane's pilot and the control tower operator. The pilot initially decided not to descend but he abruptly changed his mind about landing when it gets closer to the airport.
Flydubai's CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith said in a news conference that it would be too early to conclude the cause of the crash. He urges everyone to wait for the official findings of the plane crash when the anaylis of the flight recorders, which were recovered undamaged, will become available.
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