Originally Posted by
DH106
I thought that one had been shown to be an artificial horizon failure on a dark night?
Me too. And the failure was attributed to the connecting cables found being installed overtight and short-circuiting (identified by the FAA/NTSB/Boeing in the USA). Likewise the CVR was failed because the tape had snapped. Both pointed to the last time they had been maintained/reinstalled, which had not happened during the lease. The form of the loss of control also looked more like following a failed horizon rather than a jammed rudder. The aircraft still belonged to Britannia, who sent personnel to the accident scene and the enquiry. It had been leased to Copa Panama just 8 weeks beforehand, and was still essentially in Britannia livery, with the Copa name stuck over the top. It was also different in some horizon switch settings to other Copa 737s, which the crew had not been through any differences training on, and possibly the leasing carrier had not even identified. It had been re-reg in Panama for the duration of the lease so the AAIB did not need to get involved.