Crash: 737-800 down at Rostov on Don

[kham]

From Aviation Herald Pictures and some video there, ATC comm and a security cam recording the crash. Way too early of course, but weather may be a factor; they had been holding for 2 hours before this attempt, which ended in a go-around attempt and crash. The vid shows an awfully steep descent at what appears to be high speed. The wind info you hear on the ATC is given in m/s, so you have to basically double that to get knots. Bit of wind, but it was almost right down the runway.

[Billie Bonce]

All crews of FlyDubai mention extreme fatigue, they have no time to rest. I don't know if fatigue could cause such style of approach though, what apparently was a deep dive (I have seen mentions of 45-50 degrees). Also, it was mentioned that the plane dived after the pilot switched off the autopilot. Icing is possible, too. The impact was at a high speed - no large parts of the plane remained, even the engines were scattered in pieces. Ridiculously, they crashed right into the runway, into the place where a normal touchdown should be. The weather was bad but not extreme for Rostov on Don, the airport was not closed, though several pilots decided to divert their flights to Krasnodar. I bet, no Russian airline would fly for 2 hours waiting for the weather when a nearby airport was available. But apparently for FlyDubai the fuel is much cheaper while a landing in another airport is more expensive...

[kham]

There haven't been any new updates on the AvHerald page just yet. Lot of commentary, lot of it not very intelligent , sadly. They had plenty of gas, and could have diverted even after holding 2 hours. After the Aeroflot diverted after it's 3rd busted approach, maybe they should have taken hint. They have the FDR and CVR, so its probably analysis at this point. But just back-of-matchbook from the video and the known cloud base, their rate of descent was around 150 m/s (slightly more than 29,500 ft/min) which seems to suggest a extreme dive

[kham]

The AvHerald page is updated, essentially saying there are no updates...

But seriously, the Russian investigation team basically slammed every so-called ''leak'' as a bunch of bullshit, and please ignore it; NOTHING has been determined yet. Analysis continues , along with trying to reconstruct the debris. That, looking at the new photos, looks a daunting task. There aint a whole lot left from a high-energy impact

[Billie Bonce]

Oh yeah. The Russians have experience of reconstructing such things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_821