Russian Hockey Team Crash Due to Pilot Error

[moose135]

Probe says hockey team crash caused by pilot error

A Russian jet crash that killed 44 people, including an entire professional ice hockey team, was caused by pilots inadvertently putting on the brakes during takeoff, investigators said Wednesday, blaming poor crew training and lax oversight.

The Interstate Aviation Committee said the Sept. 7 crash of the Yak-42 plane near the city of Yaroslavl in central Russia occurred because one of the pilots accidentally activated the brakes during takeoff and then pulled the plane up too sharply in a desperate attempt to take off.

[Lead Investigator Alexei] Morozov said that both pilots had flown another type of plane with a slightly different cockpit layout and apparently had never learned the correct position for their feet on takeoff. He said in the Yak-42, like virtually all other existing Russian and Western planes, a pilot steers the aircraft by pressing the lower part of pedals and activates the brakes by pressing their upper part.

But instead of putting their heels on the cockpit floor as regulations require, the crew left their feet resting on the pedals, inadvertently activating the brakes and slowing the plane down on takeoff. They at first didn't notice they were putting on the brakes, and then made the fatal mistake of failing to abort the takeoff, he said.

Full story: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/...h-Pilot-Error/


ETA: More information, including details and diagrams from the accident report is available from The Aviation Herald:
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4428da13/0014&opt=0

[Delta777LR]

what a dummy! it doesnt take much to know what your feet are on when you are in the flight deck. Something like that happenned on an Atlas Air 742 in Miami earlier this year. Pilot accidently hit the pedals while taking off but was able to make a second attempt...

This is what happened with Atlas Air in Miami... Pilots hit break pedal on rolling