A RUSSIAN Government commission investigating the crash of the Airbus 310 in which 75 people, including six from Hong Kong were killed, has confirmed one of the crew was teaching his children to pilot the plane minutes before it crashed. A commission statement did not say directly that this was the reason for the March 23 crash in Siberia. However, it is the first official admission that all was not as it should have been in the cabin on the fateful trip. The statement, given to Reuters news agency, said the flight recorders showed the scheduled Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Hong Kong was proceeding without any problems until it was passing over the Siberian city of Novokuznetsk. It said: ''It was established that present in the cockpit were a son and a daughter of a crew member who, in violation of flight rules, was demonstrating and explaining to them the principles of piloting a plane. ''Four minutes after passing Novokuznetsk the plane diverted to the right more than it should which resulted in a sharp loss of altitude and collision with the ground.'' The flight recorders were examined in France before being shipped back to Russia. The statement was reporting preliminary results of the investigation. Media reports have said the 15-year-old son of a co-pilot was flying the plane when it apparently went out of control. The reports were said to be based on information from investigators in Paris who had access to the black box recordings. They also said a male steward was in the co-pilot's seat. The youngster was also reported to have been taking barbiturates for a medical condition. Traces of the drug were found in his blood. The investigators suspect the boy flicked the wrong switches, causing the plane to begin a four-minute nose-dive. Ten Hong Kong men and women are in Moscow after holding rites for loved ones at Novokuznetsk near the crash site. Two bodies were positively identified and plans were made for one to be cremated in Moscow and the other to be brought back to Hong Kong for burial. The other four Hong Kong people killed could not be identified.
