Originally Posted by
JamesT73J
What a terrible thing.
The TU-154 - especially a low-cycle mil pony - should be a pretty solid jet. I hope they get to the bottom of it quickly.
At night over water at rather low altitude it doesn't take much more than one instrument giving wrong indications to get an otherwise perfectly flyable Airliner quickly into the Ground/Water. I wouldn't expect major/structural cause. Chances are Pilot error (conditions potentially conducive to spatial disorientation), Fuel contamination or something electrical/Flight instruments. Will be interesting to see if we will ever get to know the real cause.