Russia blames pilot error for hockey plane crash

Russian air experts yesterday blamed pilot error for a crash that killed members of a top ice hockey team, saying that one of the two pilots in the cockpit had also taken a banned medication.

The direct cause of the crash of the Yak-42 plane... were the mistaken actions of the crew in pressing the brake pedals

As the plane took off from the central Russian city of Yaroslavl two months ago, one of the pilots accidentally pressed down the brakes, the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) said in a report published on its website.

“The direct cause of the crash of the Yak-42 plane... were the mistaken actions of the crew in pressing the brake pedals,” said MAK, an expert body that investigates air disasters in former Soviet republics.

“The braking could have been carried out by the commander who was carrying out active piloting, or the second pilot,” chairman of the technical commission of MAK, Alexei Morozov, said in a televised presentation. The Russian-made Yak-42 crashed on September 7 shortly after take-off, killing 44 people, including players and support staff from Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team, prompting an international outpouring of grief.

Among those who died were Swedish Olympic champion Stefan Liv as well as players from Russia, Germany, Latvia, Belarus, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and the team’s Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon. One player, Russian Alexander Galimov, survived the crash, but died days later in hospital from horrific burns. The report was the latest in a series to blame air crashes on human error rather than ageing Soviet-designed aircraft.

It said the pilots could have committed the error of putting their feet on the brake pedals during take-off because they were more used to flying another plane with that foot position.