To determine the cause of the crash, the board is set to interview passengers who survived the fatal accident and disassemble the aircraft engine in cooperation with a U.S. engine maker.
The plane, carrying five people, took off from Chofu airport around 11 a.m. on July 26 (2 a.m. GMT) for a training flight to the island of Izu Oshima, south of Tokyo, and soon crashed into a house some 690 meters from the airport’s runway. Three people — the pilot, one of the four passengers and a resident in the house — were killed, while the three remaining passengers and two other people suffered injuries.
According to the board, the plane itself weighed 1,359 kg, and its overall weight limit, including fuel, equipment and passengers, at the time of takeoff was 1,950 kg.
Four days before the accident, the plane, fully loaded with fuel, flew about 30 minutes. Therefore, about 397 liters of fuel were believed to have remained in the aircraft when it took off on July 26.
All five aboard were men. Assuming that each of them weighs 60 kg, the total weight of the plane may have exceeded the limit level, according to the board.
In theory, the plane can take off from the runway after running about 580 meters. Footage from a camera installed at the airport showed that the nose landing gear of the aircraft left the ground at a point some 580 meters from one end of the runway, according to the board.
The report said that the propeller of the plane is believed to have been rotating when it hit some houses, including the one into which it crashed.
The air temperature at the time of the crash was 34 degrees Celsius. The engine output would not fall unless the temperature was at least 40 degrees, the report said.
One of the surviving passengers has told the board that an alarm went off immediately after takeoff. The alarm, possibly a stall warning, might have notified the pilot of the danger of the aircraft losing airspeed, according to the board.
Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp
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