Thrust lever forward indicates balked landing

With the investigating team recovering the cockpit voice recorder CVR of the ill-fated aircraft,it would now take at least a fortnight to ascertain the real cause of the crash,sources said.

Preliminary investigations have found that the thrust lever of the aircraft was full forward,which indicates that it was a balked landing,and there was an attempt by the pilot to abort landing at the last moment and go around. While other details would be known only after a thorough probe,it has been established that the pilot had an unstabilised approach,high momentum and took the decision to abort landing very late, a source said.

Bir Singh Rai,DGCAs Director Air Safety has been appointed Inspector of Accidents. He will be assisted by a team of experts.

At present,preliminary replay and detailed analysis of air traffic control tapes is being carried out and navigational,aerodrome and runway facilities existing at the time of accident are also being looked into,sources said.