DON’T PRESENT CONSPIRACY THEORY AS FACT
THE Editor’s Note of October 16 about the Samora Machel plane crash presents a conspiracy theory as fact and is unbecoming to journalistic accuracy.
Whatever you may believe, that there was a false beacon or the theory that the pilots mistuned Matsapha’s beacon with a similar frequency to Maputo and followed that signal, the crash came down to a basic failure of the pilots to react to a cockpit warning that they were about to fly into the ground.
This is the evidence of the voice recorder decoded in Switzerland in the presence of representatives from Mozambique, Russia and South Africa.
The voice recorder showed that the pilots descended below the minimum safe altitude for the charted instrument approach, without having instrument landing system signals or having the runway in sight, both absolute no nos.
Then, when the Ground Proximity Warning system sounded a warning of an imminent crash, the crew continued descending instead of taking full thrust and pitching the aircraft up to the maximum as pilots are trained.
Whatever beacon you wish to believe they were tracking, they made multiple basic flying errors that led to the crash. Following correct procedures would have kept the aircraft safe.
Don’t present conspiracy theory as fact. Especially not in The Star. Benoni By Stephen Francis & Rico