Russian plane crash may be caused by avionics' icing: aviation committee

MOSCOW - The crash of a Russian airplane resulting in the death of 71 people on board could have been caused by the icing of its avionics, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said in a statement Tuesday.

The IAC, a supervising body overseeing the use and management of civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States of the former Soviet Union said it had completed decoding the data of the plane's onboard recorders.

"A preliminary analysis of the recorded information, as well as an analysis of similar cases in the past, suggest that the development of a special situation in flight could be caused by incorrect data on the speed of flight on the pilots' indicators, which in turn was apparently associated with the icing," the statement said.

It said the heating of the instruments, connected to indicators were switched off and the reasons for that required additional investigation.

The Antonov-148 of Saratov Airlines with 65 passengers and a crew of six en route from Domodedovo Airport in Moscow to Orsk of the Orenburg Region on the border between Europe and Asia crashed Sunday near the village of Argunovo, some 80 kilometers from Moscow, killing all people on board.

The Antonov-148 is a regional high-wing jet with a maximum range of about 2,100-4,400 kilometers and passenger capacity of 68-85. The plane was designed and built by Ukraine's Antonov company until 2017 and also built by Russia since then.