3 charged for homicide and negligence in the Spainair crash case
After the terrible week in which the Spainair case descended into a farce, the presiding judge investigating the case spent a while getting to grips with the case.
He has now accepted the preliminary report into the crash, which puts forwards as the explanation that after a hasty repair an alarm was disconnected – this alarm would sound if the flaps were not in the correct position for takeoff.
As a direct consequence of this, he has charged three men – the two mechanics who worked on the plane, plus the head of maintenance for the company – with homicide and “imprudent lesions”, dependent upon the final outcome of the investigation.
He has also taken the unusual step of forming a parallel investigation, to comprise of two pilots, two engineers and two mechanics, who will revise the main investigations reports and summarise their own report into the crash. This is believed to be due to the fears of political manipulation I mentioned before. The Judge will personally select the members of this new committee from a shortlist of senior members of the appropriate professions.
So does that mean if the alarm had been connected and failed the plane would have crashed? I am no pilot but surely the pilot has control of the flaps and would know what position they are in at any time.
As I understand it – the flaps were not locked in the correct position, although the pilots thought they were, as otherwise the alarm would sound. So the pilots in preflight checks assumed everything was OK.
So as they took off the flaps reverted to normal and the plane lost lift and crashed.
Well thanks for that information. I think there is a design fault which worries me because it means even if the alarm is connected but fails there is no indication to the pilot and the flaps are totally dependent on that alarm. If the alarm is not working or disconnected the flaps should fail safe. So we will have to wait till the experts give their report.