Search for answers
Speculation on the cause ranged from equipment trouble to
communications difficulties.
The flaming planes crashed into open
wheat and mustard fields, with no houses nearby,
officials said. At least one black box data recorder had
been found, authorities said.
 The wreckage was spread over several
miles and gouged craters in the fields. Remnants of the
Saudi plane were spread across a 3-square-mile area
(9-square-kilometers), about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from
the Kazahk wreckage.
Its fuselage was broken into three
smoldering pieces. The Kazahk plane was initially
misidentified as a Tupolev. The Indian government
announced it was ordering a judicial inquiry into the
crash.
The radar equipment at the airport is
old and cannot indicate degrees of separation between
aircraft, according to Brijendra Shekhar, head of the Air
Traffic Controllers Guild.
That means the controller guiding the
plane could have seen how far they were from the airport
but now how far from each other they were.
The weather was clear with normal hazy
pollution in New Delhi. Information on the service
records for the planes was not immediately available.
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