Alcohol, pilot confusion blamed for Russian crash that killed 88
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 | 4:44 PM ET
The Associated Press
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Alcohol and pilot confusion over the instrument panel on a Boeing passenger jet were responsible for a crash last year that killed 88 people in Russia, aviation officials said Tuesday.
The Boeing 737-500 operated by an Aeroflot subsidiary crashed Sept. 14 while preparing to land in the city of Perm, about 1,200 kilometres east of Moscow.
Russia's airline investigator, the Interstate Aviation Committee, said in its final report released on Tuesday that the plane's captain "lost spatial orientation" after he misread an altitude indicator on the Boeing's instrument panel.
The indicator shows whether a pilot is flying straight and level.
The committee also said an unspecified amount of alcohol was detected in the pilot's body, and that he was overworked.
The plane went down during an attempt to land in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, following a flight from Moscow.
Among those killed on Flight 821 were citizens from the United States, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Latvia.
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