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Bad weather blamed for crash

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Russia and Ukraine declared a day of national mourning on Thursday for the victims of Tuesday's crash of a Russian Tu-154 airliner as experts offered first theories of what could have caused the catastrophe.

The Tu-154 with 170 persons on board on flight from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg crashed near the city of Donetsk in Ukraine, killing all those on board as it burst into flames on impact with the ground. Minutes before the crash, the plane tried to avoid getting into a severe thunderstorm by climbing above the 10,000 metres where it was flying. Experts said it was a dangerous manoeuvre as temperature at that altitude at the time was about 20 degrees Centigrade above the standard minus 56 C.

Another possible cause of the crash was strong winds, which could have tilted the plane's nose to a higher angle than the safe 20 degrees, causing it to go into a spin. Witnesses said the plane had been spinning around its tail as it came down. The Tu-154 has three engines in its tail section, and cannot easily get out of a "flat spin".

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