I live only a few miles from the crash site, about right at the FAF 24. At the time I was on the phone so I didn’t hear it pass by but my mailman told me that he heard it pass by “making a funny noise”. Of course such a “layman observation” could mean a lot of things but obviously something was already going wrong.
The aircraft crashed about half a mile right of track with a considerable off-track heading (45 to 60º). From the pictures it is clear that the right prop isn’t damaged much suggesting its engine wasn’t running at the time.
From a point of view of topography the airport is about 500-600ft above the level where I live and a good 400ft above the crash site. Also the airport was fogged in but at my place was about 400ft ceiling with a visibility of about 2 miles. This suggests that the crew could have been VMC in the very final stages of the flight.
Thus far for the facts – the rest is pure speculation at this stage. However, there are wild rumors going around already.
- The aircraft just came out of a service and rumor has it that the right engine had been changed;
- Luxair will resume operations tomorrow but only “experienced” pilot will be allowed to fly;
- All the local political dignitaries were having a “field day” and Mr. H. Grethen, Minister of Transport and Economy was once again making a fool of himself.
Rumor has it that Mr. Grethen has more expertise regarding alcoholic beverages than his about his functions. Well I personally don’t know about his drinking habits but a can confirm his poor judgment regarding aviation from first hand experience. Since he became minister back in 1999 the civil aviation scene in Luxembourg has been in permanent state of crisis.
So far many forces try to “unseat” Mr. Henri Klein, the director of the DACL (Direction de l’Aviation Civile de Luxembourg = the Luxembourg CAA), as a consequence of his minister’s decisions. And to name the account of such decisions and scandals would go far beyond this sad story. Let me just say as much as since Minister Grethen has taken over the DACL is forced to “police” their airlines in the worst possible way.
As a result communications and collaboration between authority and airlines have gone done here in Luxembourg which took its toll and training standards, maintenance quality, etc are going downhill. I fear that today’s sad accident may be the result.
In my opinion, and whatever the accident investigations reveals as primary cause, the JAA should take a very close look at Luxembourg. The time where airlines and crews have to fear their authority should be over and even in Luxembourg the industry and the authority should team up to improve safety.
In Luxembourg pressure is already rising that “heads must roll”. I sincerely hope that it will be Henri Grethen and not Henri Klein. Otherwise, the DACL will lose its most competent member.
So, without knowing the cause of this accident yet a lot of problems within the country’s aviation industry are finally coming to light. I hope that this sad day will be the turn around for Luxembourg.
BeePee