Safety investigation reveals pilot intentionally crashed Mozambique plane

A preliminary investigation into a Mozambican Airlines Crash in Namibia that killed 33 has revealed that the capital had manipulated the autopilot in a way denoting a "clear intention" to bring the plane down, said Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (IACM).

The plane was flying from the Mozambican capital Maputo to Luanda in Angola in torrential rains and crashed in the swamps of Namibia's Bwabwata National Park on November 29, killing 27 passengers and its six crew.

The investigation revealed that Captain Herminio dos Santos Fernandes locked himself in the cockpit and ignored alarm signals.

"Dos Santos Fernandes refused to allow his co-pilot back into the flight deck until moments before the crash and also manually changed the aircraft's altitude three times from 11,582 metres to 180 metres," (IACM) head Joao Abreu said.

Abreu also said that high-intensity alarm signals and repeated demands for the co-pilots to come into the cockpit could be heard.

Airbrake parameters showed the spoilers, and aerodynamic resistance plates on the wings, were deployed and held in that position until the end of the recordings, which proved the throttle was manually controlled, according to Abreu.

Dos Santos Fernandes had logged 9,053 flight hours, his licence was renewed in 2012 and he underwent a medical exam last September.

The passengers were from Mozambique, Angola, Portugal, Brazil, France and China.

This accident is the deadliest for Mozambique since a plane carrying then-president Samora Machel went down in 1986 in South Africa following an African leaders' summit and killed an estimated 34 people.

he European Union banned Mozambican Airlines and all air carriers certified in Mozambique from flying in its airspace in 2011 due to major concerns over safety.