US Officials: Parts of Crashed Plane Found in Florida
US officials have found parts of the plane that crashed in Florida.
Translated by Qiyas from الجريدة — Original source
Parts of the aircraft that crashed in Florida were found up to 3.8 miles from the crash site, according to U.S. officials.
Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the discovery of the tail section broken into three pieces confirms that the plane was breaking apart before it hit the ground.
He explained that the aircraft would not have been able to pitch up and recover from a steep dive without its tail remaining intact. Chapman added that he was unsure whether the tail would have functioned effectively even if it had been intact, given the tremendous speed at which the plane was plummeting toward the earth.
Chapman said the elevator on the tail had shattered into three pieces, noting that if this component had not been intact, the pilot would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its steep dive.
“The elevator’s function is to control the aircraft’s pitch up and down. At those speeds, I don’t know if it would have performed its function effectively even if it had remained attached to the aircraft, but knowing that it was lost is a crucial piece of evidence that helps us identify other aspects that need to be investigated,” he said.
Chapman acknowledged on Monday that parts of the jet may have begun to separate before impact. The pilot’s assistant, Natalia Gadella Filgueiras, had informed air traffic controllers minutes before the accident that ice was accumulating on the aircraft and that severe turbulence caused sudden altitude changes of more than 700 feet (210 meters).
