A wrongly chosen engine operating condition may have been the likely cause of the recent crash of a YAK-42 airliner near Yaroslavl on the 7th of this month, a crash that claimed the lives of the local Lokomotiv hockey club team.
This came in a statement for the Interfax news agency by a source in the law enforcement bodies.
A lead is now being followed up whereby the pilots may have failed to light the afterburner during the take-off run.
As a result, the plane failed to pick up the required speed due to insufficient thrust to gain height during the take-off.
The lead is proved by the fact that the pilots, when still on the runway, failed to report any technical problem to the flight traffic controllers.
Wrong engine operating condition is likely cause of Yaroslavl air crash : Voice of Russia