YEREVAN. – In all likelihood, the cause of the air disaster, which occurred in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, was a combination of circumstances.

Head of the Pilots’ Association of Armenia, former head of the Armenian government-affiliated General Department of Civil Aviation, and former head of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Civil Aviation Department, Dmitry Atbashyan, expressed such a view.

He stated this reflecting, at the request of Armenian News-NEWS.am, on the possible causes of the FlyDubai airline plane crash in Rostov-on-Don.

Atbashyan noted that as a rule, pilots are guided by the wish to land their planes at the airports of their final destinations, but not at all costs.

“Landing in an alternate airport is time-consuming and linked to additional difficulties,” he stated. “But I don’t think that, at such moment, pilots think about the additional expenses of the airline.”

In the expert’s view, the cause of this air disaster was probably a combination of circumstances: the human factor plus adverse weather conditions.

“Footage showing the last seconds of the flight of the plane is on the Internet,” Dmitry Atbashyan added. “There it shows that the plane is not landing, but falling. I believe the plane was in turbulence.”

A FlyDubai airline passenger plane, which was en route from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Rostov-on-Don, crashed near the Rostov-on-Don airport, on Saturday at 4:41am Armenia standard time.

The aircraft fell and burst into flames while attempting to land for a second time.

All 55 passengers and 7 crewmembers were killed in the air disaster.

The plane crashed 50 to 100 meters from the runway and split into several parts.