The investigator of the Manx2 Swearingen Metro crash at Cork in Ireland, has been able to release enough facts to confirm the accident was not caused by a technical failure.
However, there was a fault the company had not noticed - or had chosen to ignore as being of little consequence: when the power levers were advanced, one engine provided slightly more power slightly more quickly than the other.
The flight-data recorder showed this disparity had existed for some time. The Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) is now trying to determine whether that slight power asymmetry had a material effect in causing the loss of control that occurred almost exactly at the moment when the crew demanded power for a very late go-around. When the crew advanced the throttles, first the left wing dropped, then the right, and it was the right wing hitting the runway that precipitated the crash. But just before that point the aircraft was already on the verge of stalling, and the essential question is why the crew, having intentionally continued the approach beyond the decision height with no sight of the runway, allowed that situation to develop.
Behind it all remains the question of whether the "virtual airline" structure of the entire operation was material to the accident. The AAIU statement indicates it is keen to examine that possibility, and so it should.
(This appeared as the second leading article in the 14 February issue of Flight International)
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