Inquiry blames crew failure for 2014 plane crash in Mali

Air accident investigators said on Friday that crew errors caused the 2014 Air Algerie crash over Mali, blaming a mixture of mistakes for the disaster which killed 116 people, Fox News reported. 

France's Analysis and Investigations Bureau says that the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 went down in July 2014 near the rural town of Gossi after problems with its sensors that were probably caused by obstruction by ice crystals.

The bureau's report says the plane's crew didn't activate the aircraft's anti-icing mechanism even though they were flying in an area where the presence of ice crystals was likely and reacted late when the plane started to slow and then stall.

Friday's report says the crew never recovered from the stall, sending the aircraft plummeting.

The report's recommendations included studying a permanent anti-icing system for the plane's sensors. 

The plane crash killed 116 people in 2014. Of the victims, 54 were French citizens.

Source: MENA