Newly-released details about August’s fatal Air Moorea de Havilland Canada Twin Otter accident in French Polynesia show the aircraft suffered a sudden and rapid loss of control, causing it to crash into the sea just 11s later.

A fractured elevator cable discovered in the wreckage remains a focus of attention for French investigators but the inquiry, which has just completed its initial phase, has not yet formally linked the damage to the 9 August accident.

Elevator pitch-up and pitch-down in the Twin Otter are achieved using two cables, each about 12m (39ft) long, running along the right-hand side of the fuselage from the pilot’s control column.

Investigators from Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) found that both of these cables, as well a

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.