FlyDubai offers families of dead chance to visit crash site

The airline is still refusing to speculate on cause of crash or release the names of the victims.

James Vial, senior vice president of FlyDubai’s flight operations, with chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith. Victor Besa for The National.

DUBAI // Family members of the 55 passengers and seven crew who lost their lives on flight FZ981 are being offered the chance to visit the crash site.

A trip to Rostov-on-Don airport, in Southern Russia, has been offered by FlyDubai as part of support for bereaved families. The airline said the families were the priority and it would do whatever was required to get them to the site, if they wanted to go.

“We are making preparations for family who wish to visit the scene of the accident to do so,” said FlyDubai’s chief executive, Ghaith Al Ghaith.

At a press conference in Dubai on Sunday, airline officials were keen to quash some of the speculation surrounding the flight’s last moments.

Mr Al Ghaith said bad weather was not the cause, though Russian investigators have not ruled out weather conditions yet.

“As far as the operation of the flight is concerned, the airport was open,” he said.

“It was good enough to operate, and it was good enough to land, as per the authorities.

“The weather conditions were good enough for the flight.”

Mr Al Ghaith ruled out a theory that a shortage of fuel may have led to the pilot opting for an emergency landing after it was reported that the aircraft circled for two hours before its descent.

He also said there was no lack of experience on the pilots’ side, with the Cypriot captain having landed at the airport before and clocked more than 5,900 flying hours.

Mr Al Ghaith also rubbished reports that FlyDubai staff had been prevented from speaking to the media, saying there would be no repercussions or disciplinary action against those who chose to do so. “We have a very clear policy of communication with the media and the rest of the world,” he said.

“We do not say to people not to speak to anybody. People know their jobs.”

He also ruled out claims that a shortage of pilots may have led to fatigue among the flight FZ981 crew. “We have sufficient pilots,” he said.

He said the airline was “one family” and that its priority was supporting the families of those lost.

He said no further details would be officially released until all family members had been notified.

“Throughout yesterday we made efforts to contact as many family members as possible and those affected, and that is continuing,” he said.

“We will not reveal the names of passengers until we know their family have been told first.

“We ask that, during a sensitive time, we should give them the time and space to grieve.”

Russian authorities, however, have already released the passengers’ names.

Mr Al Ghaith said that a team from the UAE was in Russia helping authorities there with the investigation.

“They will be working with the authorities to help them identify the cause of the accident as soon as possible,” he said. “We know there has been a great deal of speculation as to the cause of this tragedy.

“We share this desire to get answers as quickly as possible but we must not be drawn into speculation.

“From the beginning we have said we are giving all the information to authorities.”

James Vial, senior vice president of flight operations at FlyDubai, said it was too early to say when black box information would become public, or when the investigation would be concluded.

“Black boxes contain a lot of information relevant to each aircraft,” he said.

“Until we see the actual flight data, we don’t want to speculate about what may or may not have happened.”

Meanwhile in Russia, investigators confirmed that Rostov-on-Don airport had a full instrument landing system (ILS) in place to aid pilots during poor periods of visibility.

ILS is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision lateral and vertical guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway.

It uses a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing if the pilots are unable to establish visual contact with the runway.

FlyDubai operates at 11 airports in Russia and officials said that the operational standards in the country were high.