Human error caused Libya plane crash
2013-03-01 22:05
Cairo - Human error is to blame for a passenger plane
crash in Libya in 2010 that killed 103 people, civilian aviation officials said
on Friday.
The Afriqiyah Airways plane from South Africa crashed
into the desert near Tripoli's airport in May 2010.
Most of the passengers were Dutch tourists.
A 9-year-old boy was the only survivor.
"The investigation concluded that the accident
proved to be the result of a lack of co-ordination among the crew, caused by
several factors, including the psychological state that the crew was in due to
the length of the trip," Captain Nasereddin Shaebelain, director general
of the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority, told AP in a video interview in
Tripoli.
The final report of a two-year investigation, which was
released on Friday, confirmed that the plane did not have mechanical failures
and did not run out of fuel.
It pointed to communication errors and faulty procedures
by the flight crew.
"The pilots' performance was likely impaired because
of fatigue," but that the extent to which this contributed to the crash
could not be determined, the aviation authority said.
The Libyan authority was assisted in the investigation by
US and European experts as well as Airbus, which built the A330-202 plane.
- SAPA
