Antonov crash: Phaedon Karaiosifidis explains the possible causes of the crash

For its possible causes fall of Antonov in Kavala, spoke to SKAI Phaedon Karaiosifidisaeronautical engineer, expert in aviation accidents and editor of the magazine “Flight and Space”.

Possibly an engine problem that initially did not particularly concern the crew, or at least did not lead to an immediate decision to land, rapidly developed to the point where it was beyond the crew’s ability to deal with.

Most likely the development of the fire in one of the two engines was rapid, he estimated, explaining that there is a fire extinguishing system in the aircraft but. as he characteristically stated, “don’t think of an airplane as a fire department» since there are usually two bottles per engine which are essentially two large fire extinguishers and if they run out there is no longer any way to extinguish the fire since the fire has spread.

“Fire is the worst thing that can happen to an aircraft“, he emphasized.

Mr. Karaiosifidis summarized the history of the fatal flight and the existing information we know, pointing out that the Antonov, flying within Greek airspace – where Greece is now responsible for controlling the aircraft – initially informed that it would return, due to a problem that presented itself , at the place of take-off and then, after apparently the damage had escalated, he sent out a distress signal asking for an emergency landing in Kavala.

“This is explained as follows: With such a load you do not want to land in a third country” he states specifically, explaining essentially that according to international regulations, the landing of an aircraft with a dangerous cargo entails the application of a specific protocol with checks and potentially this can even temporarily for formal reasons be confiscated until it is confirmed that it is not illegal.

The fatal Antonov, now heading towards Kavala, descends from the 21,000 which was the flight height with which it came from Serbia, to 15,000 feet and in a period of three to four minutes it suddenly loses height.

According to Mr. Karaiosifidis, this is not an attempt to land the plane, but an escalation of the damage that probably occurred either because the fire spread or because power was lost in an additional engine.

“It loses 13.5 thousand feet, i.e. about 4 kilometers, as a result of which it ends up” he points out, adding that as shown in the videos we have seen, it does not fall from the sky like a stone, as we have seen happen with other aircraft, but it glides.

“He plows the field for about 250-300 meters” he explains more specifically, stating that at this stage the Antonov has already started to disintegrate and possibly for this reason bodies were also found outside the fire site.