The last words of a pilot aboard a Russian passenger plane that crashed killing all 71 people on board were: ‘That’s it, we’re f*****.’
Audio recordings from the cockpit of Saratov Airlines Flight 703 that crashed shortly after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedevo Airport on February 11 revealed the last conversation between captain Valery Gubanov and co-pilot Sergei Gambaryan.
According to a transcript published by RBC, 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 says.
The last words of captain Valery Gubanov (above) aboard a Russian passenger plane that crashed killing all 71 people on board were: ‘That’s it, we’re f*****’
Gubanov told his co-pilot Sergei Gambaryan (pictured) to gain altitude instead of tilting the plane downwards as they scrambled to prevent the tragedy
‘Why are you going down? Where? Altitude! Altitude! Altitude! Up!’ he later urged his co-pilot.
The audio recording cut off as he said: ‘That’s it, we’re f*****.’
RBC confirmed the recording was authentic with sources at the Federal Air Transportation Agency and the Interstate Aviation Committee.
Last month, investigators said the crash may have been caused by the pilots’ failure to activate heating for pressure measurement equipment, resulting in flawed speed data.
Saratov Airlines Flight 703 that crashed shortly after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedevo Airport on February 11. Pictured, workers at the scene of the crash
The Interstate Aviation Committee said, after studying the plane’s flight data recorder, that the crash occurred after the pilots saw varying data on the plane’s to air speed indicators.
The regional jet crashed minutes after it took off from Moscow en route to Orsk, a city around 1,000 miles southeast of the capital.
Officials later confirmed that all 71 people on board – 65 passengers and six crew – died.
Emergency personnel work at the wreckage of an AN-148 plane crash in Stepanovskoye village, about 25 miles from the Domodedovo airport
Fragments from the twin-engine Antonov An-148 airliner were found in the Ramenskoye area, about 25 miles from the airport.
The plane had first flown in 2010, with a two-year break because of a shortage of parts.
It was ordered by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot, but was put into storage during 2015-2017 because of a lack of parts.
Tass reported that it re-entered service for Saratov Airlines in February 2017.