FlyDubai CEO defends crash pilots’ decision to land, says conditions were ‘good enough’

FlyDubai’s top executive said conditions for landing were appropriate when one of its flights crashed at a windy airport in southern Russia, even though three other carriers rerouted flights to other destinations.

“As far as the operation of the flight, the airport was open, it was good enough to operate and it was good enough to land, as per the authorities,” Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer of the Middle Eastern budget carrier, told reporters Sunday at a press conference in Dubai.

Ultimately, the pilot makes the final decision to land based on the best information available and in co-ordination with the authorities, Ghaith said. All FlyDubai aircraft operate with enough fuel to circle in the air or divert to another airport, he said, without specifying how much.

Investigators began work by examining the two damaged flight recorders, known as black boxes, recovered after the jet broke apart while trying to land in gusty winds in Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, killing all 62 people on board. Flight FZ981, a Boeing 737-800 with 55 passengers and seven crew, was making a repeat landing attempt in poor weather about 3.40am when it crashed and burst into flames.

At about the same time, flights operated by Aeroflot PJSC , Czech Airlines and Turkish Airlines were due to land in Rostov-on-Don but opted to re-route, according to information from independent tracking service Flightradar24.com. Aeroflot made three attempts to land but both the Russian carrier and Czech Airlines diverted to Krasnodar, about 275km away, while Turkish Airlines returned to Istanbul.

“In this incident or any event, a pilot makes the decision to operate and man the flight on the best information that we have and its their call in co-ordination with the authorities, in this case it’s the tower that he’s communicating with, or any authority he was communicating with,” Ghaith said.

In Moscow, Russian, French and UAE experts who had access to the devices plan to finish preliminary work to assess the quality of the recoverable flight data by the end of Sunday, according to a website statement by the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee. The IAC will issue a preliminary report within a month, Ismaeil Al Hosani, assistant director general for the Air Accident Investigation Sector at the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority, said in a statement.