MOSCOW, February 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's State Transportation Company said Tuesday it disagreed with the findings of the Interstate Aviation Committee on the cause of a passenger jet crash in the summer of 2006.
A Tu-154, operated by St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airlines, crashed August 22 near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on a flight from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg. All 170 people on board - 160 passengers and 10 crewmembers - died.
According to a report released by the investigation panel last week, the crash was the result of pilot error rather than technical failure.
"The Russian State Transportation Company disagrees with the commission's findings, which stated the cause of the crash was the so called human factor, that is to say, pilot error," the agency said.
It said the commission did not take into account the opinion of all its members, some of whom disagreed with the official findings.
"Official conclusions do not reflect the real causes of the accident, nor do they consider all possible factors," it said.
A storm that raged in the area at the time was initially believed to be the main cause of the accident, but investigators on the Interstate Aviation Commission said the weather had no major adverse effect on the plane's avionics. They said, however, that the crew was not adequately trained to maneuver a plane in complicated weather conditions and that its actions lacked coordination.
They also said that the jet was in a good technical condition.
Russia's transport minister said last Saturday more stringent testing standards will be introduced in the country following the deadly jetliner crash.
"We will toughen procedures for testing pilots, increasing the number of training flight hours, especially for co-pilots," Igor Levitin said.
