Originally Posted by
Machinbird
Everyone is discussing the interesting approach, but it is not clear to me that the aircraft even reached the Yasouj NDB to commence the approach.
Those are some serious Mountains north of Yasouj, and tall mountains, strong winds can create extreme problems in maintaining altitude.
So far, information on the route of the flight has been pretty sketchy.
So far there are two possibilities based on that sketchy info:
1. the flight got off course along the airway and began descent prematurely (for whatever reason), or
2. The approach had been flown and a missed approach was in progress, albeit off course.
The recorders hold the answer because there surely is no ATC radar once in that valley or canyon.