- It is a clear night
- "Runway in sight" reported
These are the established facts that I have drawn out from various posts here...
Now if that's the case how would they end up in those mountains as there is no limitation for the pilots to see the runway after assuming their crash heading? They would be following the runway as they were making the turn to complete the racetrack one thinks...
As far as I understood from what's plotted on the charts on MaxBlow's post, they indeed flew on the 223 heading but then, for some unknown reason, instead of turning to 43 another heading was chosen which is <43 degrees and from the plots you could see the path flown is not a 180 degree right turn.
Based on these I would personally assume that from their entrance point to the racetrack (which should be <223 degrees) took them over to the mountains on the magnetic S. Having this fact in mind, they then extended their turn in order to cut runway centerline assuming still flying on the lake. Thus confidently they started the descent but ended up unfortunately in the mountains.
I am looking the charts and see the crash site between 4000 and 5000'. Looking at D5 IPT, it shows 4560'. Maybe a longshot for many but for me it is mind bothering...
However there is a major flaw in this theory: If it was possible to follow the runway lights as there was clear skies, one would definitely observe the deviations and take corrective/evasive actions. This I can't explain...
