The last words of a pilot aboard a Russian plane that crashed killing all 71 people on board were: ‘That’s it, we’re f*****.’Audio recordings from the cockpit of Saratov Airlines Flight 703 that crashed shortly after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedevo Airport on February 11 revealed the last conversation between captain Valery Gubanov and co-pilot Sergei Gambaryan.
According to a transcript published by RBC, Gubanov told his co-pilot to gain altitude instead of tilting the plane downwards as they scrambled to prevent the tragedy.
‘I understood you wanted to… but instead you’re going down,’ Gubanov says.’Why are you going down? Where? Altitude! Altitude! Altitude! Up!’ he later urged his co-pilot.
The audio recording cut off as he said: ‘That’s it, we’re f*****.’
RBC confirmed the recording was authentic with sources at the Federal Air Transportation Agency and the Interstate Aviation Committee.
Last month, investigators said the crash may have been caused by the pilots’ failure to activate heating for pressure measurement equipment, resulting in flawed speed data.
Photo credit: Associated press