Report Cites Pilot, Tower Errors in Azores Crash

Investigators reportedly are focusing on pilot and controller errors and confusing radio exchanges as likely causes of an airliner crash in the Azores earlier this month that killed 144 people.

The New York Times, in its Saturday editions, reported that tape recordings of conversations between the pilots and air controllers indicate the pilots believed they had been cleared to descend to 2,000 feet, when in fact the controllers had said 3,000 feet.

In addition, the controllers apparently gave the crew an incorrect barometric setting for the jet’s altimeter. The newspaper cited sources who said such a mistake might have accounted for the jet being an additional 300-foot lower than its pilots thought.

If the plane had remained at 2,000 feet or above, it would have cleared the 1,936-foot peak, highest on the island, where the crash occurred, the newspaper said.

The chartered Boeing 707 carrying 137 Italian tourists and a crew of seven to the Caribbean was preparing to land for a refueling stop at the Santa Maria airport Feb. 8 when it crashed into the mountain. There were no survivors.

The airport at Santa Maria does not have sophisticated radar that tells controllers a plane’s altitude.

The investigation is focusing on why the pilots would have accepted the order to descend to 2,000 feet when they had not reached the point where they would begin a series of turns in preparation for landing. Official navigation charts set 3,000 feet as the minimum altitude for planes approaching the Azores, the newspaper said.