KAZAN, Russia — The grainy airport video is dark, short and chilling. Within five seconds, a dot of light that Russian authorities say is a Boeing 737 appears in the sky over the tarmac and plunges to the ground in a near-vertical crash. The result is a blinding fireball.
The video shown Monday by Russian television stations of Sunday night’s horrifying crash at Kazan airport that killed all 50 people onboard raises a host of questions, including why the plane’s second attempt to land at night in good weather went so horribly wrong.
Experts from the NTSB, Boeing and the FAA were heading to the scene to help.
John Cox, an aviation safety consultant who flew 737s for 15 years for US Airways, said one of the first issues investigators will look at based on the nearly vertical angle of descent in the video will be whether the plane experienced an aerodynamic stall, which usually occurs when a plane slows to the point where its wings lose lift.
