Death crash pilot was on tranquillisers

The pilot of a small Swiss airliner which crashed, killing all 10 people on board, was taking tranquillisers, accident investigators said today.

The Swiss Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said experts had found traces of Phenazepam in Pavel Gruzin’s muscle tissue. They also found an open packet of the Russian-made drug in baggage belonging to Gruzin, a Moldovan who was flying for the Swiss company Crossair.

While investigators could not exclude the possibility that the drug had impaired Gruzin’s judgment, neither could they say that its effects were to blame even partly for the crash in January 2000.

The bureau said a preliminary investigation had found no evidence to suggest the crash was caused by technical problems.

The 33 seat twin-engined plane, en route from Zurich to the German city of Dresden, was airborne barely two minutes before it suddenly started to lose altitude and turn to the right instead of following the approved flight path to the left.

When controllers asked the pilot if he meant to turn right, they were answered by: “Stand by.” Then radio contact was lost as the aircraft went into a diving turn and slammed into a field