Experts speculate plane crash in Russia due to rare phenomenon

A leading meteorologist believes the FlyDubai plane that crashed yesterday in Russia was affected by a rare natural phenomenon called a "jet stream".

The scene of the plane crash in Russia. Photo: Tass

"At the time the plane was about to land, a rare natural phenomenon called 'streaming flow' appeared in the area, causing wind speeds to reach 100 km/h or 30 m/s," Sputnik quoted Evgeny Tishkovets, a meteorologist at the Fobos weather forecasting center, as saying.

According to Tishkovets, the phenomenon of "jet lag" usually occurs at an altitude of about 5 km, but in Rostov-on-Don it occurs at an altitude of only a few hundred meters.

"'The jet stream can be seen at altitudes from 2,000 feet to nearly 35,000 feet," he said. "Aircraft generally avoid this phenomenon, except in situations where the aircraft uses the wind to save fuel at 30,000 feet."

He judged that waiting for weather conditions to improve at that time was futile as the forecast showed that the weather would continue to be bad, while attempting to land in such conditions would be extremely dangerous.

Tishkovets said that planes can only take off and land at certain wind speeds. For example, the Tu-154 and some Russian Ilyushin models are only allowed to land at wind speeds of between 10 and 17 meters per second. In the case of the FlyDubai plane, it appears to have landed when the wind speed exceeded the allowed level.

FlyDubai Flight FZ981 crashed yesterday in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don while approaching the runway to land. All 62 passengers and crew members were killed.

According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, the planeFlyDubaiattempted to land once but failed. The plane then circled for two hours waiting for weather conditions to improve. On its second landing attempt, a wing struck the ground, the plane broke apart and burst into flames.

According to VNE