Investigation update: Overloading has been ruled out as a cause of the crash. By the calculations, the 747 was within one percent of the planned weight. TSB's Bill Fowler:
The big issues is . . . the aircraft took off with the engines set at substantially reduced power from that required to take off at that weight with this runway in those conditions.
What scenario is the most plausible? Is it mechanical? Is it human error? Is there any other system error that might have led to this?
In the latter portion of the takeoff the thrust went up to maximum. We're confident thrust was available.
http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...4/CPN/31935022