Drunken Navigator?

The Russian Interstate Aviation Committee published their report on the June 20 crash of a RusAir jet at Petrozavodsk Airport.

The crucial factors included poor visibility due to the fog, poor networking among the crew, and the pilot subordinating himself to a navigator in a “light level of intoxication” but was five years older, with 25 years of flight behind him, with 13,000 hours on Tu-134 flights.

The body of the navigator had a 0.081% blood-alcohol level and it is conjectured that his pre-flight medical was falsified, because the pulse rate is identical to the rest of the crew.

Although the fleet is aging, no mechanical flaws are cited in the crash. However, according to the Wall Street Journal

Instead of the automated system required at Russian airports since 1992, investigators said, it measured visibility with nine signposts, but just two of them were illuminated.

The onboard alarm went off at an altitude 60 meters, when the plane was 270 meters to the right of the runway, eight seconds before it hit the trees and well past the time the navigator should have warned the pilot or the pilot or co-pilot to independently decide to pull up.

What: Rusline/Rusair Tupolev TU-134A en route from Moscow to Petrozavodsk
Where: outskirts of the Besovets village, Petrozavodsk, Russia
When: Jun 20 2011 at 11:40 pm
Who: 43 passengers and 9 crew, of whom only a flight attendant and 4 passengers survived.
Why: On approach to the airport, the plane struck the ground about 2600 feet shy of runway 2. On impact, the plane burst into flame, and skidded into the gardens of a residential area, although missing residences.