Pilot Intentionally Crash Passenger Plane In Mozambique

Maputo - An aviation official says preliminary investigations show the pilot of a Mozambican plane intentionally brought the aircraft down.

Joao Abreu, chairperson of the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute said on Saturday that recordings and reports confirm "there was an intention to crash the plane", that killed all six crewmembers and 27 passengers on board. 

The Mozambican Airlines plane was bound for Angola and went down 29 November in a Namibian national park near the border with Angola.

Abreu says the pilot's motives were unknown. He named him as Herminio dos Santos Fernandes. 

Abreu said the co-pilot was not in the cockpit when the plane went down, and that banging on the cockpit door can be heard in recordings from the plane's black box.

He said investigations will continue.

- AP