Paxboy
Yes. African cities tend to sprawl wide at lowish heights.
Thanks for that - this is what I assumed but wanted to make sure. Obviously at this time, we have little information to go by and it's eye witness hearsay with very little knowledge.
The fact the poster was able to quote that a pilot heard the mayday call citing a double engine failure does give us a bit of info though.
Going by the eyewitness report though, the reason I stated a clearing was due to the comment "The plane appeared to be "zigzagging"
Surely if the plane was not under power, you'd limit movement to your control surfaces to maintain what little speed and altitude you have. Which led me to the thought that they were in fact, trying to line up with a clearing (or what they believed to be one)rather than a densely populated area, but fell short.
The reason I say this is because of fairly "controlled" pitch that the eye witness describes. Of course, it could be the crew were trying to eek a couple of hundred more feet in travel, but again, it doesn't make sense to me why the plane would be zig-zagging without power, unless they cited a potential "safe point" as surely it just decreases their range further?
Obviously I'm no Pilot, nor do I claim to be one. I'm no arm chair pilot I just have an interest in all aspects of Aviation. I'm just trying to stimulate conversation and at the same time, hear your opinions. Obviously this is a rumour and news discussion and hopefully I haven't gone outside the realms of "possibility" where I get grief for adding my input.
Update:
I just viewed the crash site on google earth, and it does appear that they had nowhere to go, as there was no clearing. So I suppose that train of thought is out of the window.
Cheers all,
I suppose in a country such as Africa it's impossible to police such a situation.
Africa is actually a continent with 54 (yes 54, more than EU, America, or Asia!!) different countries and a multitude of ethnicities and thousands of languages.
Ah - I did put continent but it appears my i Device decided to change it. Thank you for the correction however, as I can now change it and not look more of a baffoon than I already do,
My point remains (excluding the Country/ Continent error) that the Video footage shows a somewhat chaotic scenario, which could expose equipment to being looted, contaminated evidence etc.
Cheers.