Originally Posted by WHBM
bear in mind this was a Tu154B with the original Kuznetsov engines, rather than the later Tu154M variant
All the more reason to think the aircraft was overloaded. But until we find out basic things like the location where it impacted the water, and confirm what the highest airspeed / altitude obtained were, we are just gossiping about this crash.
I also don't put a lot of faith in the accuracy of the snippet of cockpit dialogue put out by RT news, if they're going to release anything, why not release the whole transcript? What's the point of releasing the incoherent snippet that RT gave the world?
If no more hard information is released, this one will have to go into the history books as "the unexplained TU 154 crash." Or perhaps as the TU 154 that crashed in the fog on a perfectly clear morning.