KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia: The crash of the light aircraft on the Guthrie Highway near the Elmina township in Shah Alam, Selangor could have been caused by the problem on the wings, said Terengganu chief minister Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who is an aerospace engineer by trade.
In a Facebook post, the former head of the Aerospace Department of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) said that based on visual evidence available to the public, the problem might be caused by either an aileron failure or a combination of both rudder and elevator failure.
“Looking from the visual evidence alone (in the form of dashboard cam footage which has other limitations too) that is available to all of us, I would incline to believe the issue at hand would be more on the ‘flight control’ – more towards problem on the wings, possibly either on the aileron failure or combination of both rudder and elevator,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said the aircraft failures could also originate from various problems or a single issue such as maintenance issues, plane structural integrity failures, including structural stress and cyclic fatigue, engine failures, flight control issues, avionics problems and human factors.
However, more information is needed in finding the cause of the incident including the flight black box analysis, the findings from the crash site investigation, and micro and macro inspection of the parts and debris.
Malaysian air accident investigators were analysing on Friday the cockpit voice recorder of the light plane.
Dr Ahmad also conveyed his condolences to the families of the 10 people killed in the crash.
“Heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families from all of us in Terengganu. May their souls be blessed by Allah SWT,” he said.
The Beechcraft Model 390 (Premier 1) light business jet aircraft flying from Langkawi to the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang crashed at about 2.50 pm on Thursday, killing all six passengers and two crew on board.
The other two victims were civilians, each being a motorcyclist and a car driver who happened to be passing by at the scene.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain has said the process of managing the bodies of the victims was expected to be completed as early as Monday.