Friday, March 8, 2013

Possible Door of Crashed Air Class Metro, CX-LAS, found by Fishing Boat

On the morning of 11Feb13, the Uruguayan fishing boat "Dartesa I" caught in its fishing nets what appeared to be the door of an aircraft, some three miles east of Isla de Flores, near the "exclusion zone" established last year for the search of the remains of Air Class Metro, CX-LAS.  The aircraft crashed into the Rio de la Plata sea on 06Jun12 with the loss of its two crew members while operating a freighter flight from Montevideo (MVD) to Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE).

Last September the professional diver, Hector Bado, had located the remains of the CX-LAS' fuselage, Flight Data Recorder, and Cockpit Voice Recorders (both of which yielded no information) when further search operations were called off by the Uruguayan Navy.  Since then, Judge Mariana Mota had ordered resumption of the search for more remains of the aircraft but the Navy had not complied, sparking accusations of a possible cover-up.  More recently, before the recent discovery, the Navy finally relented and was making plans to start the search again with Mr. Bado.

Mr. Bado has reasoned that the finding of the door a couple of miles east of the fuselage's location suggests that it might have detached from the aircraft in flight.  Although not an aviation expert, he has further speculated that the door might be the rear cargo door and that it detached and hit the aircraft's tail causing the plane to crash.  Further fueling this theory is the ATC recording of the plane's copilot asking "What happens if we go to 8,000 feet?" which is the altitude at which they would have started pressurizing the aircraft.  There have been rumors that the rear cargo door had had problems which would fit in with the co-pilot's comment.

Source:  http://www.elobservador.com.uy/noticia/243385/una-puerta-
            atrapada-en-redes-de-pesca-reabre-misterio-aereo/

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