Accident Summary - continued

Investigators were able to locate both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which revealed many insights about the final moments of Flight TK981.

Just as the aircraft was passing through 9,000 feet at 300 knots, there was a muffled explosion and the sound of air rushing, which indicated a sudden decompression. At the same time, the No. 2 throttle lever closed and the engine began to spool down. The captain asked the copilot, who was flying the airplane, what had happened. He replied, "The fuselage has burst!" The aircraft began to descend while banking to the left. The captain pulled the other throttles back and told the copilot to bring the nose up. To that he responded, "I can't bring it up, she's not responding!" By this time, the aircraft was in a 20-degree nose down attitude and was continuing to accelerate.

At thirty-two seconds after the explosion, the aircraft's overspeed warning horn sounded. Forty-five seconds later the aircraft struck the ground at 430 knots. Because there were no prior indications of a problem and the debris was in small pieces, investigators first believed the accident to have been caused by a bomb. However, shortly after the accident, a farmer called claiming that six bodies had fallen into his fields some 8 miles from the crash sites. Bits of the fuselage were also found in the area.

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