Just to Richen the Mixture
DIRTY fuel or a volcanic cloud might have affected the engines of the plane that crashed off the coast of Sicily at the weekend, Italian media reported yesterday.
Clouds of ash and gas from the active Sicilian volcanoes Etna and Stromboli could have extinguished both engines of the Tuninter plane before it plunged tail-first into the Mediterranean, La Nazione speculated.
Twenty-three people survived the crash, which killed 13.
A pilot flying in the same area at the time of the crash, identified only as BR, told the newspaper that planes had warned of the risk of volcanic clouds between 2100m and 3900m. A plane flying through a volcanic cloud would lose power in both its engines simultaneously, he said. Otherwise, there was more chance of being hit by lightning than to lose both engines.