Pilot error was to blame for the plane crash that devastated Yaroslavl's elite Lokomotiv hockey team last month, Kommersant reported, citing anonymous sources within the investigation.
After a series of tests designed to reproduce conditions onboard the Yak-42 prior to the crash, specialists at the Gromov Test Flight Institute confirmed that the plane failed to gain enough speed at takeoff because one of the pilots hit the brakes.
Forty-four were killed when the chartered jet, operated by Yak-Service and carrying Lokomotiv to Minsk for its first regular-season game, crashed shortly after takeoff.
The only survivor, mechanic Alexander Sizov, said in an interview last week with Channel One that the plane was slow to take off but that he didn't feel any jerky motions, as might be expected if the pilot had slammed on the brakes.
Mechanical failure, bad fuel and a collision with a navigation beacon shortly after takeoff were other early theories, but these appear to have been ruled out by investigators from the Interstate Aviation Committee.
It is unclear why one of the pilots would have applied the brakes during takeoff, according to The Moscow Times.
