A team of specialists has started probing Tuesday's crash of a German cargo plane on a runway at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, in accordance with the directives of Crown Prince Sultan, Deputy Prime Minister, Defense and Aviation Minister and Inspector General. The team, headed by Deputy Executive President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation Abdul Aziz Al-Anqari, has inspected the incident's site, met with investigators and briefed Al-Anqari about technical work plans and progress in the investigation, said GACA spokesman Khaled Bin Abdullah Al-Khabiri. He said the investigators are highly qualified specialists, and that investigations are carried out as per the International Air Transport Association's standards, which stipulate that investigations are carried out by teams from the country where the plane was based, the country where it was manufactured and the country where the incident took place. Investigators from Germany, representing the company operating the plane, and the US, where the plane was manufactured, have arrived in the Kingdom to work with GACA investigators to determine what caused the crash, Al-Khabiri said. Initial investigations showed that the plane, which was gutted by fire, caught fire as it swerved off the runway and crashed, he added. The plane's captain and his assistant, who are still in a hospital, are in good health condition, Al-Khabari said.
