Audio recordings from the cockpit of the Saratov Airlines Flight 703, that crashed shortly after taking off from Moscow airport on February 11, revealed that the plane crashed as the speed sensors showed different values. The audio recorder caught the conversation between the pilot and the co-pilot. In it, the former can be heard exclaiming, "That's it, we're f*****,' as the plane crashed.
The Saratov Airlines Flight 703 had crashed minutes after taking off from the Moscow Domodedovo Airport on February 11. All 71 people in the flight, including 65 passengers and six crew members, died in the crash.
The conversation between captain Valery Gubanov and co-pilot Sergei Gambaryan, published by RBC, a Russian media house, showed that Gubanov told his co-pilot to gain altitude instead of tilting the plane downwards as they scrambled to prevent the tragedy.
"I understood you wanted to… but instead you're going down," Gubanov can be heard saying.
"Why are you going down? Where? Altitude! Altitude! Altitude! Up!" he later urged his co-pilot.
The audio recording was cut off as he said: 'That's it, we're f*****.'
The conversation has been confirmed as authentic by the Federal Air Transportation Agency and the Interstate Aviation Committee.
Investigators last month had said that the crash may have been caused by the pilot's failure to activate heating for pressure measurement equipment, resulting in flawed speed data. This might have resulted in panic as the speed date threw up misinformation and the pilots directed the plane downward instead gaining height.
Fragments from the twin-engine Antonov An-148 airliner were found in the Ramenskoye area, about 25 miles from the airport.