Brazilian investigators on Saturday began analyzing the black boxes from a São Paulo-bound flight to try to understand why the passenger plane fell from 17,000 feet on Friday, in a crash that killed all 62 on board.
But to aviation experts around the world who watched the videos showing the 89-foot plane spinning slowly as it plummeted before crashing almost directly on its belly, the question of what had happened was simple to answer: The plane had stalled.
In other words, the plane’s wings had lost the lift needed to keep the aircraft aloft, causing it to stop flying and start falling.
“You can’t get into a spin without stalling,” said John Cox, an airline pilot for 25 years who now aids plane crash investigations.
“It’s A plus B equals C.”
Persons:
”, John Cox, “