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PALERMO (Reuters) - A Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his plane, killing 16 people, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court along with his co-pilot.
The 2005 crash at sea off Sicily left survivors swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fuselage that remained floating after the ATR turbo-prop aircraft splintered upon impact.
A fuel-gauge malfunction was partly to blame but prosecutors also said the pilot succumbed to panic, praying out loud instead of following emergency procedures and then opting to crash-land the plane instead trying to reach a nearby airport.
Another five employees of Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair, were sentenced to between eight and nine years in jail by the court, in a verdict handed down Monday.
The seven accused, who were not in court, will not spend time in jail until the appeals process has been exhausted.
(Writing by Phil Stewart)
You know...I had initially thought it was the language barrier - (I know I wouldn't want to learn how to fly in Spanish). But I have come to realize that "stupid" transcends all languages - and in fact finds fertile ground in certain cultures.
The actual CVR recording is on the internet...I listened to it a couple of days ago and it was interesting. The pilot probably didn't say much other than "Oh God" more than about four times over the span of five minutes. The rest of the time he and the FO were working checklists and figuring out what in the hell to do.
Sounds to me that Italy went overboard on this one.
Was he really saying "Oh God" or was he saying "Allah Akbar"?
I think he was speaking in French. Which is worse...;D
Dead on Beak. I had more than a few try to kill my ass at LIFT both as a student and an IP!