Flight ROT 371 took off from Bucharest-Otopeni runway 08R for a flight to Brussels. At 09:11 LT, climbing through 4500 feet, the Airbus began to descend again and finally entered a steep dive (80° nose-down) before crashing into a field.
While climbing through 2000 feet at 350km/h the crew retracted flaps. At that time the auto throttles (on 'climb' mode) should have reduced power on both engines. But the right power lever (no. 2 engine) remained in take-off power setting. It took no. 1 power lever 42sec to move to idle power. During these 42 seconds an asymmetric thrust situation developed. The aircraft by then had past the 'OTR'-beacon and the crew had, according to SID procedures, begun a 25° left turn onto a 327° heading for the Strejnic 'STJ' VOR/DME beacon. Due to the thrust asymmetry the nose-up pitch of 18° decreased to 0°. The aircraft rolled through 170° laterally and finally crashed into an open field and exploded on impact.
PROBABLE CAUSE: Lack of crew response to an extreme nose-down attitude. The investigation committee concluded that the captain was either incapacitated or absent from his seat, because he had not said anything while the critical situation was developing. Just before impact the first officer expressed his concern about the situation (either the captain's condition or the aircraft's attitude) and attempted a recovery.