Flight control problem ‘could be cause of Elmina crash’

 

Terengannu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who is an aerospace expert, said he gave his views on a possible cause based on publicly-available information. (Bernama pic)

KUALA TERENGGANU: A problem with flight controls could have caused the crash of the Beechcraft Premier I business jet in Bandar Elmina, Shah Alam, yesterday according to Terengganu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, an aerospace expert.

Samsuri is the former head of the aerospace department of Universiti Putra Malaysia.

He said in a Facebook posting that based on visual evidence available to the public, the problem might have been caused by either an aileron failure or a combination of both rudder and elevator failure.

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“Looking from the visual evidence alone (in the form of dashboard cam footage which has other limitations too) that is available to all of us, I would incline to believe the issue at hand would be more on the “flight control” – more towards problem on the wings, possibly either on the aileron failure or a combination of both rudder and elevator,” he said.

Nevertheless, he said the aircraft failure could also have originated from various problems or a single issue such as maintenance issues, plane structural integrity failures (structural stress and cyclic fatigue), engine failures, flight control issues, avionics problems and human factors.

More information would be needed to find the cause, he said.

The Beechcraft 390 aircraft was en route from Langkawi to Subang airport when it crashed on a highway at about 2.50pm yesterday, killing all six passengers and two crew on board and a motorcyclist and a car driver on the ground. - FMT