The crash of a Lufthansa cargo plane at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh last week was caused by a bad landing that collapsed the plane's landing gear, started a fire and caused the aircraft to slide off the runway, the results of a probe showed Saturday. The team assigned to investigate the July 27 crash concluded deliberations Saturday after its members, from Saudi Arabia; Germany, where the plane was based; and the USA, where the plane was made, reached a quorum, the General Authority for Civil Aviation said in a statement released Saturday. Data in the two black boxes, which were removed from the wreckage of the MD-11, will be analyzed and a full report will be issued when the investigation is complete, said Director General of Safety at the Authority Abdul Rahman Bukhari, who added that investigators are continuing to collect evidence at the scene. It has also been determined that safety teams at the airport were effective in responding to the incident, the statement said. When the plane crashed, the airport's Firefighting and Rescue Unit immediately rushed to the scene and controlled the fire. A state of emergency was declared at the airport and relevant authorities were kept on alert. A Lufthansa representative commended the staff at King Khaled International Airport for their swift action and for extinguishing the fire before it reached the plane's fuel tanks. The crash took place at 11:38 A.M. on July 27. The plane, which took off in Frankfurt, Germany, was to have flown on to Sharjah, UAE. “When landing at King Khaled International Airport, the aircraft struck the runway which destroyed the undercarriage and caused it to slide off the track,” Bukhari said in a statement. “The impact caused a fire in the aircraft,” he said. Saudi airport officials had said the MD-11 plane, which was flying 80 tonnes of freight from Frankfurt to the Saudi capital, had caught fire before it touched down, citing the two-man crew who suffered slight injuries. The pilot reported to ground officials a fire in the cargo hold of the aircraft before landing. It took civil defense workers about three hours to contain the fire. An eyewitness had said the plane veered off a runway on landing. “It did not stop until the Royal Terminal runway. Soon after smoke started to emerge, followed by a fire,” he said.
