The last 6 1/2 minutes of the flight
Hello all,
I am not a pilot and will only post on this forum based on the evidence available so far. Don't want to speculate and will only focus on the accident investigation.
Listening the ATC recordings from the W Radio link posted by Bubba it can be heard that the LMI293 flight declares a fuel emergency 6:26 minutes (all times approximate) before impact while at FL210 and requests priority to land. The ATC operator tells him that she has to bring the flight down from that level and warns about traffic ahead. Approximately 4 minutes before impact advises the flight again about traffic which they acknowledge from their TCAS while crossing FL180. The flight reports again some 30 seconds later crossing FL160. After that contact the ATC operator gets busy redirecting other traffic, namely two Avianca and a LAN Colombia flights. Around 1:30 minutes before impact LMI293 reports total electric failure without fuel and asks for vectors. ATC reports she lost him from the radar. 1 minute before impact LMI293 reports heading 350. 20 seconds to impact the flight reports altitude 9000 ft and asks for vectors. That is their last contact, seconds later they crash.
The pilot can be heard somehow calm while at FL210 but progressively becomes anxious as things continue to unfold.
It would be very important to listen to any recordings about the exchanges between ATC and the crew at least 30-45 minutes before impact to get a clearer picture of how was the flight being handled considering the low fuel situation.
Hope this helps.