Comments:All confirmed dead on Kata Air An-32, Moldova asks for Russian investigatory help

My analysis
I'm reasonably familiar with aviation accidents/incidents. This is interesting in that there were at least two major and apparantly unrelated faults - the transponder failure, which would not down the plane (it has no connection to navigations, autopilot, or any other major aircraft system) and whatever brought it down. My primary theory right now, and what I suspect the investigators will be working with as a hypothesis, is a cargo fire first shorted out the transponder, then flashed over as things heated up. The sudden flash left no time for the crew to report it - or went undetected. Smoke likely never entered the cockpit if it was a well-built plane, and I can't be sure there were working smoke detectors in the cargo area. The structure ultimatly softened under heat and failed. A secondary theory that could explain the dual problems would be electrical arcing shorting things out in crappy wiring; ultimatly, high-voltage electricity arced into low-voltage wires supplying fuel sensors in the tank. This is rare but has occured a few times. The only aircraft to have this occur in-flight was the infamous TWA Flight 800. However, it is a bizarre set of circumstances so far, and I am certainly intrigued as in to what went on in there. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 21:58, 14 April 2008 (UTC)